The B.C. Automobile Association is using humour to educate drivers about the dangers of driving stoned. We can all have a good laugh, but we have to pay attention to the message.
The TV ads, called High Driving is Impaired Driving, show sober young people making sure their parents don’t toke and drive. As Canada counts down the days until recreational cannabis becomes legal, safety agencies are ramping up campaigns because they fear too many people ignore the risks.
Regardless of one’s views on the harmfulness or harmlessness of pot, research clearly shows that it messes with attention, reaction time, judgment, decision-making and co-ordination. Driving is hazardous enough for people with all their faculties operating properly. Just as with alcohol, anything that impairs those faculties puts everyone on the road in danger.
But too many people apparently think a little mellowness behind the wheel is just fine. A recent Statistics Canada survey found one in seven respondents said they had driven within two hours of smoking up at least once in the past three months. Last fall, a Public Safety Canada study said 28 per cent of respondents had driven high. One in 10 said they were better drivers when they smoked pot. That is frightening.
The federal government says 40 per cent of drivers killed in crashes tested positive for drugs, compared with 33 per cent who tested positive for alcohol. And this is while pot is still illegal.
It will become legal in two months. That is not much time to hammer home the message.
