Who is down for a bike ride? According to new studies out of Germany and Australia find that smoking cannabis does not impair your ability to ride a bicycle.
As attitudes toward marijuana across the country continue to change, and with more and more people smoking weed every day, there has been an increasing push to study the effects of marijuana on a person’s cognitive abilities.
Luckily, for all cyclists who enjoy to pedal after they puff, a new study out of Germany and Australia shows that smoking weed has almost no effect on a rider’s ability to properly operate a bicycle.
In a study published last week in the International Journal of Legal Medicine, researchers set up an obstacle course for 14 bicyclists. The cyclists were then asked to ride through the course sober, as well as after smoking one, two and three joints to test their performance.
And, to make sure they were properly stoned (science!), the researchers were quite exact about how the test subject got high.
Each joint given to the participants contained 300 micrograms of THC (the active psychoactive component in cannabis) per kilogram of body weight, and test subjects were told to inhale their joints for four seconds, hold their breath for 10 seconds and exhale for 15 seconds.
After tallying the mistakes made while biking the course high, the researchers came to a strong conclusion: There was virtually no difference between cycling stoned or sober.
“Hardly any coordinative disturbances could be detected under the influence of high or very high THC concentrations,” the researchers, led by Dr. Benno Hartung from the University Hospital Düsseldorf, concluded.
“Only a few driving faults were observed even under the influence of very high THC concentrations … On average, there is no increase in the number of demerits after the cannabis consumption.”
But before you get your hopes up for a future that might include some sort of pot-smoking-while-cycling hybrid competitions (a highathlon, if you will), the researchers were quick to point out that their 14 test subjects were all regular marijuana users, meaning they all had a higher tolerance for THC.
In other words, it still might not be a good idea to try to take your friend who has never smoked in their life on a high bike ride through the city during rush hour.
H/t: Grind TV and Robert Pursell