Don’t drive stoned

If there’s one thing drivers need to get straight it’s simply this: Don’t drive stoned.

But with less than two weeks to go until cannabis becomes legal in Canada, it’s clear there has not been nearly enough time or money spent on public education and police enforcement campaigns to drive that message home.

Indeed, a poll released this week by the South Central Ontario chapter of the Canadian Automobile Association found 48 per cent of drivers who currently use cannabis reported they had tried to drive after ingesting or smoking the drug.

Worse, a study from Public Safety Canada last year found one in 10 people who drive high believe it makes them a better driver.

Research, of course, shows that cannabis negatively affects reaction time, decision-making, motor skills, co-ordination, attention and judgment.

In fact, some studies have found a near doubling of the risk of crashing for drivers who have consumed pot.

Still, despite all the information out there, drug-impaired driving is on the rise even as the rate of alcohol impaired driving has dropped.

No wonder then that the percentage of Canadian drivers killed in vehicle crashes who test positive for drugs (40 per cent) now exceeds the numbers who test positive for alcohol (33 per cent).

The good news is that attitudes suggesting it’s OK to smoke up and drive can be changed.

After all, they aren’t much different than those that surrounded drunk driving decades ago, when it was common to for hosts to urge their guests to “have one for the road” before they left a party. No one would consider recommending that now.

The challenge now is to get out the message out that impaired driving of any kind is dangerous. Governments must do more on that front, and quickly.