Back in the days of Cheech and Chong, driving while high seemed to be a staple of marijuana use. I can admit at times it was exhilarating, exciting, a great thing while road tripping, but the reality is, it is simply not a good idea. Especially now that we are upon a marijuana revolution where personal marijuana use is not only tolerated, but is becoming legal in certain states.

These are 5 reasons you should never drive high:

5. It’s illegal

Obviously, simply because something is illegal does not mean people are going to stop doing it. Several things that can be quite enjoyable are outlawed in much of the United States and other areas like gambling, public nudity, marijuana, drugs, making your own liquor, and so forth.

Little do we realize, though, or even think about is, is that if you are caught driving high you can be charged with a DUI, DWI, or several other charges that will make your life a living hell. Driving high in the eyes of the law, is just as bad as driving drunk, and I have good faith that majority of people that drive high, will never ever drive drunk. It may not be exactly the same, but you are indeed driving under the influence of something.

Now that Colorado and Washington have legalized marijuana use there are laws being put in place to combat driving high.

Prior to these laws, the main issues with law enforcement and high driving was how do they tell that you are actually under the influence of marijuana? How do you test someone who is driving high? It’s not like they can take a drug test, because we all know that marijuana will stay in your system for up to 30 days after you smoke so that isn’t accurate. Lawmakers in Colorado and Washington have come up with high driving laws that require anyone who has used marijuana to have under 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood in your body. That would require you or your buddies to wait up to 3 hours after lighting up that blunt before you’ll be able to drive legally again.

4. Easily distracted

We all know how hard it is focus after you’ve packed your water bong full of California Kush. Depending on the strain, marijuana can make you drowsy, hyperactive, or just plain psychotic while high.

Due to the magical effects of marijuana, you will have short-term memory loss, and become easily distracted. While at home you may be distracted the newly found zig zag pattern of your carpet, or whether or not you can focus long enough to make a jenga tower out of cheetos. While out on the road distractions can and will lead to car accidents, damage, and even death. That is why there are so many laws on cell phone use. So what if you’re sober driving down the interstate texting your friend? In a milisecond, someone could swerve in front of you and slam on their brakes while you’re staring down at your phone. Blam, your text message never gets sent, you are in the hospital facing manslaughter charges for the person you rear-ended who happened to roll off the nearby cliff because you hit him and they lost control.

That example may sound extreme, but that is exactly what would happen if you were high in the same situation and packing a bowl, or fooling with your cd player, etc. The authorities will now that you were under the influence and will haul your ass off to jail for several months or years even.

In the same situation, without any distractions, chances are it’d be an unfortunate loss for the other driver’s family, insurance will handle all of the bills and you will have a long and unhappy afternoon with the police and paramedics, but it will be simply that, an accident and the next day you will not be worse for wear.

3. Confusion

Being high is not only fun and enjoyable, depending on your level of highness you can experience quite a bit of confusion and loss of reality. Mind you, these things are fine if you’re a seasoned marijuana user and are at home in your livingroom or out at the park, but when you’re behind the wheel of a vehicle, it is much harder to regain your senses when you have 90,000 things to keep track of and pay attention to. Often times, you will either forget where you’re going, or make a wrong turn and go down unfamiliar roads. Unfamiliar roads while high are not fun. I’ve been there and done that, usually they lead to dead ends, or you don’t see a stop sign and fly through it, only realizing after you’ve been pulled over that you probably should’ve stopped earlier.

4. Reactions time ARE slower

Younger marijuana users are going to debate this reason fiercely. Hell, they will probably argue with the rest of these bullets as well. Ignorance is bliss and the young is typically ignorant, careless and reckless. There are lots of places on the internet that will say your reactions times are not affected by marijuana use. False.

How well do you do playing sports while high? Some people do exceptional, most do not. For most people marijuana makes people lazy, lethargic and slow.

Trying smoking a blunt and going fishing. If you’re not familiar with fishing, you try to get the fish to take your bait whether it is a worm, plastic bait or what have you. Once you feel that tug on the line, or see the fishing line bounce just above the water, you have to set the hook. This means, in most cases you have half a second or less to yank that fishing rod up over head hard and fast. Being high, means that half a second is gone before you even realize it and the number of fish you catch will be nill.

There are a number of factors that lead to slow reaction times like tunnel vision, distractions, confusion, and just feeling tired and not being as alert as you normally are when sober. Your reactions times may not be as bad as being a stumbling drunk, but there are several factors at work here and you will simply not react quite as fast while driving high than sober.

You’re going to ruin it for the rest of us

Right now, America is at a very sensitive time for the marijuana community. Two states have legalized personal marijuana use, not just medical use. They are essentially an experiment for the rest of the country to determine whether marijuana legalization for personal consumption is safe for everybody and great taxable revenue.

You, the lonely stoner, might think it is a great idea to drive around Colorado and Washington state with your water bong, blunt and vaporizer going all at once and then cause a 15 car pileup on the interstate because you were looking for the cherry you dropped under your seat. Concerned parents, teachers, politicians will then be outraged and frightened at the marijuana menace and we will go back to the old ways as the public danger is simply too great.

Depending on how smart people are with their actions in regard to marijuana in those two states, we could see full legalization in the other 48 states as well as federal legalization to increase tax revenue. That could be on the horizon within the next 10 years. If too many people are dumb, too many people driving high causing deaths, it will be outlawed again and the marijuana community will go back in time 20 years and the war on drugs will continue.

Please, don’t be that person. Anyone over the age of 21 who can consume marijuana legally should have enough understanding of the dangers that driving high and driving drunk can cause for yourself and other people around you. If you don’t mature enough by the time you’re 21, you will realize it when you have a significant other or a family to look after along with just yourself.