Marine Ice Makers Professionals Discuss Marijuana Laws and the Possible Affects On Boating

Your Marine Ice Makers Professionals Find Out How Strict the U.S. Coast Guard Will Be With New Laws

Raritan Engineering your marine ice makers analysts would like to share with you these topics we thought would be of interest to you this month regarding the new marijuana laws and the possible affects on boating.

In six coastal states where marijuana possession is legal, “It remains a violation of federal law. If we encounter it in the course of our operations, we will enforce those laws,” says Lt. Cmdr. Devon Brennan, who oversees the U.S. Coast Guard’s counter-narcotics enforcement programs and policies. 

When I began charter fishing in Florida during the 1980s, marijuana smuggling was so rampant that every school kid understood that square grouper was the nickname for a floating bale of weed. 

In most states today, possession of less than an ounce of cannabis garners a citation and a few-hundred-dollar fine, and recreational use is now legal in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, Maine and Massachusetts.

Brennan points out that the Coast Guard is not unique. Any federal law-enforcement agency follows federal law. The difference is that on land, federal officers aren’t out writing tickets for faulty taillights, but the Coast Guard routinely boards boats, even within state waters, to enforce federal boating-safety laws. 

Check us out at Raritan Engineering for the best marine ice maker out on the market. 

Your marine ice makers specialists feel that federal law covering small quantities of any Schedule I substance, including marijuana, allows fines as high as $5,000. 

Anyone holding a U.S. Coast Guard captain’s license, for example, even if they were out boating for fun on the day of the marijuana citation, will have to wait at least a year after conviction to renew that license and also complete a drug rehabilitation program, among other requirements. (The same holds true for state drug-possession violations.)

Operating under the influence of a controlled substance is the paramount concern of all law-enforcement personnel who I interviewed. 

While laws vary, it’s clear that marijuana aboard can cause trouble for boaters cruising waters patrolled by federal agencies like the U.S. Coast Guard.

Your Brain on Drugs

Dr. Marilyn Huestis, adjunct professor at the University of Maryland medical school, is a leading researcher on cannabis impairment, including studies employing University of Iowa’s advanced driving simulator. Simple tasks, she says, are often completed just as well while impaired, but performance drops rapidly when complexity increases. 

Huestis says research indicates as much as a 2.6-fold increase in the odds of being in a serious or fatal automobile accident with any measurable THC in blood, and studies have shown as high as 6.6 times the serious accident rate at 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood, which is Washington State’s legal limit. 

One way marijuana use differs significantly from drinking alcohol is that THC concentrations measured in blood decreases by 90 percent after less than 90 minutes, largely because the brain and major organs absorb it, Huestis says.

Another troubling issue, she says, is studies showing marijuana users’ willingness to drive. “People don’t think cannabis is impairing them, even when it is still at least twice as likely to result in an accident,” she says.

Choose your marine supplies here at Raritan Engineering, where we always take care of your marine supply needs.

via How Legalized Marijuana Applies to Boaters

via Photo