New ad targets stoned drivers in Florida

“When you’re under the influence of marijuana and you choose to get behind the wheel, you know it’s wrong.”

So begins a new ad from The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which targets stoned drivers. The campaign, which recently began airing on local television, is dubbed “Drive Baked, Get Busted.”

The new ad push emerged from legislation related to Florida’s recent legalization of medicinal marijuana, which directed the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to create a statewide impaired-driving education campaign. In the 30-second spot, a man settles into the driver’s seat of a car and checks his rear-view mirror to find several passengers in his back seat, including a child. Then, a convertible pulls up in the next lane and a bicyclist pauses in the headlights.

“So, if you don’t listen to your instincts, think about your fellow passengers, or think about the other people on the road, even the unexpected ones,” a trooper narrating the commercial adds.

Suddenly, that trooper is outside the driver’s window.

“And if you don’t think about them, you’ll answer to us,” he says. “Drive baked, get busted.”

The law which mandated the ad campaign also requires the department to establish baseline data on the number of marijuana-related DUI citations, traffic arrests, accidents and fatalities, and to track those figures annually.

According to a report released in January, the “Drive Baked, Get Busted” campaign is primarily targeting motorists between 18 and 34 years old. It also targets those between 55 and 74.

Lawmakers set aside $5 million for the campaign in the 2017-18 fiscal year budget.

“The goal of the DRIVE BAKED, GET BUSTED campaign is to educate Floridians about the dangers of impaired driving and promote awareness of impaired driving laws,” the report said. “The priority of the campaign is to make clear and direct links to the negative consequences for marijuana-impaired driving in a memorable and conversational way to create true behavior change.”

But how will troopers know to “bust” those who drive while high?

Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Kim Montes said investigators use the same training to detect drug impairment as they do alcohol: by observing how a driver behaves both behind the wheel and once pulled over, detecting a telltale smell — be it of alcohol or marijuana — or conducting field-sobriety testing.

“We look for the regular signs of an impairment, but when we get them pulled over, anybody that’s smelled marijuana before knows that it’s a very specific odor,” she said.

Once in custody on suspicion of driving under the influence, drivers are asked to take part in testing. For alcohol, troopers use a breath test. For drugs, they take blood or urine. Drivers who won’t take the tests face an automatic one-year license suspension the first time they refuse, Montes said.

Regardless of the substance, she said, impairment is impairment — and it’s always dangerous.

“We don’t know what they’re on a lot of times when we’re evaluating them, even if we suspect and smell an alcoholic beverage,” she said.