Ramping up risks of driving while high
Programs warn youth against getting behind the wheel after smoking pot ahead of legalization
TORONTO — Alexis Vegh is working what could be a tough crowd — about a dozen young people in their late teens and early 20s — and she’s here to speak to them about the risks of driving high after smoking pot.
“I use quite a bit of slang during the presentation,” she bluntly informs them as she begins her hour-plus-long talk.
“Weed, piff, kush,” she says, firing off some street names for cannabis to surprised laughter. “Lit is high. Ball up. Spark up.”
Vegh is speaking their language — and she’s got their attention.
As a facilitator of the Weed Out the Risk program offered by Springboard, a community-based organization that supports at-risk youth and adults, Vegh has delivered her talk more than 200 times in the last three years, mostly to high school students. In all, more than 8,500 youth have been exposed to the message.
And with Ottawa preparing to legalize recreational marijuana next year, that message is considered more critical than ever.
Springboard is among a number of Canadian organizations ramping up efforts to teach youth about the risks of driving high, which many young people erroneously believe is not as dangerous as drinking and driving.
The main mind-altering ingredient in pot — tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC — impairs short-term memory, slows reflexes and reaction times, and narrows peripheral vision.
“Statistically, we know that young people have a fairly good ability to recognize the risk of driving under the influence of alcohol, but we see the numbers being significantly lower in their ability to recognize the risks of driving high,” Vegh says.
And it’s not just those who smoke up and slide into the driver’s seat: surveys show 41 per cent of youth are not concerned about getting in a vehicle with a high driver.
“In one in five accidents, people under 18 test positive for weed,” she says. “If we put that up to (age) 29 ... I’ve seen numbers as high as 50 per cent.”
Still, Vegh’s presentation is meant to be informative and interactive — not preachy.
“It’s not about finger-waving,” she tells the group of young people taking employment courses at a Springboard office in Toronto. “We do this from the harm-reduction principle. We know that people are going to use or not use and we may or may not be able to change that depending on where they’re at.
“What we’re looking to do is educate people around their choices.”
While many parents have discussions with their teens warning of the dangers of mixing alcohol and wheels, far fewer have a similar conversation about driving while zoned out on marijuana — or being a passenger with a high driver, says Vegh.
“So to me, it doesn’t make any sense that we’re not having at least a frank conversation about what are the effects, what are the risks, what does it look like and how do you keep yourself safe.”
Sparking conversations between parents and young people is at the heart of a campaign by Drug Free Kids Canada called The Call that Comes After, a “transmedia experience” that combines online elements with a device central to teens’ lives — their mobile phones.
“Our approach has always been on targeting the parents,” says Marc Paris, executive director of the private sector-funded, non-profit charity that encourages young people to live their lives free of drug or alcohol abuse.
“And the reason we target the parents is that we find that they’re the first line of defence in any drug-prevention strategy. They have the most influence over kids, even though sometimes they don’t quite believe they do.”
Parents who visit Drug Free Kids Canada’s website (drugfreekidscanada.org) can customize a short online video on the dangers of driving high by inputting their teen’s name and cell number, as well as the name they use for the parent, for example “Mom.”
A video is then sent to their child, showing a group of teens who make the decision to drive after smoking pot. The video culminates with a crash, followed by an increasingly frantic series of texts from a parent asking if they’re OK.
The narrative then jumps to reallife as the same messages begin appearing on their child’s phone or other digital device.