Police might need extra training in how to work with witnesses who are high, as cannabis can muddle memories, according to a new study.
Researchers gave study participants around 21 milligrams of THC and then had them answer memory-testing questions. They found the high participants were more susceptible to falling for trick questions and having their memories confused. ]
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This is unlikely to change how any judge or jury listens to evidence in a court room, as most courts in Canada already understand being intoxicated can muddle eyewitness accounts, criminal lawyer Paul Doroshenko told Mugglehead.
“It’s no surprise that people’s memory will be impacted by cannabis or any other drug,” Doroshenko said.
Memories are fickle and fluid things that are already mostly unreliable, he said. It’s something he says can be so unreliable he finds it sort of disturbing people can be convicted on eyewitness accounts alone.
“You can have two or three people side by side as sober adults witnessing a car accident and two or three people will describe it differently, and may have a clear memory about it or not,” he said.
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