Ithaca DWI Lawyer: Cross Faded Driving Dangers

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Hanging out with my adult kids teaches me stuff. Some stuff I know about but not always the names of stuff. Seems like there are many more college drinking games these days or maybe I just don't remember. Mixing drugs has been around forever but calling it being "cross faded" has not. Marijuana plus alcohol = cross faded. Technically cross faded means drunk and high, be it pills, grass, or coke is still cross faded. In many cases this leads to puking or at the very least being sick.


How dangerous is it to drive while cross faded?

Is it any less dangerous for the chronic THC user?

Does alcohol increase the effects of THC?

Cross Faded DWI is On the Rise

As more and more college kids combine drugs we have additional issues with synergistic effects. Working in synergy means that 1 + 1 = 5. No this is not the new math of 2017, this is what happens when alcohol is added to THC. It causes the THC content of the blood to increase, something about the way that alcohol dilates (opens) up blood vessels. All those lucky volunteers, right? Of note and very interesting is that drinking alcohol before smoking (THC) did not raise the THC levels in the blood plasma.

Ethanol increases plasma (blood) Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels and subjective effects after marihuana smoking in human volunteers. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11543984

Delta 9 THC is the active component of marijuana and is what the police look for in your blood to prove DWAI drugs (ability impaired by drugs). 

Chronic Marijuana Users Built Up Tolerance Softens the Effects of Cross Fading

They have also studied chronic marijuana users that then added alcohol. It seems as if those with prior experience with THC had a better time acclimating to the addition or additive effects of alcohol. I would still advise caution and warn against the operation of any heavy machinery (this means cars).

All scientific studies have shown that being cross faded is worse than being stoned or drunk alone. In other words it impairs and effects your brain worse than one drug alone. Comparing THC and alcohol is really like trying to lump two very different things together when they work on different parts of the body. One affects the body's psychomotor (alcohol) functions with balance and muscle skills while the other (THC) affects your ability to think and understand time.