Coalition superheroes: Don’t let addressing impaired driving in your community be your Kryptonite. Instead, learn strategies to address both drunk and drugged driving at CADCA’s 15й annual Mid-Year Training Institute at The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas July 17th-21ул.. Save $100 by registering by tomorrow, June 3рд.
Training session, “Community Kryptonite: Marijuana, Public Safety and Drugged Driving,” will be facilitated by researcher Erin Holmes. She is the Director of Traffic Safety Programs and a Technical Writer for the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility in Washington, D.C.
There are more than 30,000 traffic fatalities per year and of these, one-third result from impaired driving crashes, which are entirely preventable, Holmes said. She will take coalition leaders on a road trip through the problem of drugged driving at CADCA’s Mid-Year training.
“We have done a really good job addressing drunk driving, with a 52 percent reduction of deaths since they started tracking it in 1982, Holmes said. “With drugs, we are not capturing the problem because we are not testing enough people. As testing rates increase, drugged driving will increase.”
Coalition leaders will obtain ideas to take back to their coalitions to enforce the message that drugged driving is not socially acceptable.
Holmes said, “We can take a lot of what we learned from drunk driving messaging and apply it to drugged driving.”
Implications of marijuana use before driving has been on the minds of coalitions affected by legalization.
A study released this week by the AAA Foundation found that fatal crashes involving drivers who recently used marijuana doubled in Washington after the state legalized the drug. Washington was one of the first two states to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, and these findings serve as an eye-opening case study for what other states may experience with road safety after legalizing the drug.
Holmes said, “All communities can engage in this issue, whether or not their state is legalizing marijuana.”
She said social norms need to change around using prescription drugs, as well.
“We must continue to educate around the issue so we can influence policy changes,” Holmes concluded.
To read more about this training session, visit CADCA’s schedule.
Participants can take training in one of eight tracks and there are special youth sessions, too, through CADCA’s National Youth Leadership Initiative. For more information, visit CADCA’s event website. Engage with us on social media using hashtag #CADCAMidYear.
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