Can Wearing These Marijuana Goggles Make You Feel Stoned?
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Have you ever wanted to know what it was like to be stoned, but didn't want to actually smoke marijuana?
A Wisconsin-based company has developed a pair of goggles that purport to allow wearers to see the world through they eyes of a stoner.
The goggles are part of Innocorp Ltd.'s Fatal Vision Marijuana Simulation Experience Kit, that includes a ball toss and maze, memory tests and games users can play while wearing the goggles.
Wearers will "experience distinct cognitive impairment resulting from recreational marijuana use," according to the company's website. Innocorp promotes and sells the kits that start at just under $1000, as a way to show the "danger" of getting high.
Educators in Indiana have started using the goggles to dissuade teenagers from experimenting with marijuana much in the way their parents' generation was shown films like "Scared Straight," to keep them getting high. The main purpose of the green goggle kit is to demonstrate what driving while under the influence of marijuana would be like.
Marijuana advocates say the goggles are misinforming kids, and the company's scare tactics are not likely to work in today's pot-friendly society. They are skeptical of the goggle's efficacy, arguing the low-tech construction doesn't actually simulate being high. Instead, the bright green spectacles simply eliminate the color red from the visual perspective. Mike Adams at High Times insists marijuana goggles only show what it's like to be colorblind, not stoned. "Smoking marijuana doesn't make you colorblind," he says.
The Innocorp website defends the green lens, and calls it the secret to simulating stoned driving. In demonstrations, students who tried to complete a simple maze took four times longer while wearing the bright green goggles.
"The green lens acts as a filter that screens out potentially important information needed to make a decision in the specifically designed activities. The included activities use this filter to demonstrate how loss of information processing and altered visual perception might result in potentially severe consequences."
The company also sells kits that claim to simulate distracted driving, drunk driving, even concussions. No word yet if the marijuana goggles will ever be used in schools nationwide.