A new Dutch study proves that CBD Cannabidiol in Marijuana does not impair your driving. In fact, small doses of CBD appear to have no significant impact on driving, according to first-of-its-kind research published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Cannabidiol in Marijuana

Marijuana, also called weed, herb, pot, grass, bud, ganja, Mary Jane, is a greenish-gray mixture of the dried flowers of Cannabis sativa. Some people smoke marijuana in hand-rolled cigarettes called joints; in pipes, water pipes (sometimes called bongs), or in blunts (marijuana rolled in cigar wraps). Marijuana can also be used to brew tea and, particularly when it is sold or consumed for medicinal purposes, is frequently mixed into foods (edibles) such as brownies, cookies, or candies. Vaporizers are also increasingly used to consume marijuana. Stronger forms of marijuana include sinsemilla (from specially tended female plants) and concentrated resins containing high doses of marijuana’s active ingredients, including honeylike hash oil, waxy budder, and hard amberlike shatter. These resins are increasingly popular among those who use them both recreationally and medically.

“Strains rich with THC, the chemical that produces marijuana high,’ cause driving impairment up to 4 hours after vaping, but strains that contain CBD (cannabidiol) and no THC do not,” says researcher Johannes Ramaekers, Ph.D., professor of psychopharmacology and behavioral toxicology at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands.

“The implication for the general public is that the cannabis-induced driving impairment should be acknowledged as a public health risk, while taking into account that impairment may differ between cannabis strains and depends on time [elapsed] after use,” he says.

To measure the effects of the cannabinoids on drivers, researchers made participants vaporize one of four cannabis blends mainly THC and CBD. Subjects then got into cars and took to the road for a specific time limit with an instructor.

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Researchers measured driving impairment by tracking drifts in the lanes as well as fluctuations in speed. Participants also got their blood cannabinoid concentrations, heart rate and blood pressure tested. Consuming CBD alone seemed to have little impact on performance.

“There were no significant differences between CBD-dominant cannabis and placebo,” the study says. “SDLP in the placebo and CBD conditions did not differ, indicating that CBD…did not impair driving.”

“These findings indicate for the first time that CBD, when given without THC, does not affect a subject’s ability to drive,” said Thomas Arkell, the study’s lead author.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, was small with just 26 people.