A recent study from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) turned to the public for valuable insight as the Department explored the topic of driving under the influence of cannabis.
For its research, CDOT launched The Cannabis Conversation, a two-year study aimed at providing the Department with new strategies, messages, and solutions to better connect with cannabis consumers and encourage wise decision-making regarding cannabis use and driving.
The study concluded in late 2019.
To gain crucial insight and learn how to more-effectively personalize its messaging, outreach, and education, CDOT studied the perspectives and self-reported behaviors of more than 18,000 Coloradans who participated in public meetings, detailed surveys, and focus groups
“We talked online and in-person to thousands of marijuana users across Colorado,” says CDOT traffic safety communications manager Sam Cole. “We learned how different groups of people respond to different types of messages—and will use that knowledge to try to influence people to make smart choices. After all, there is no ‘typical’ marijuana consumer.”
According to study participant data, more-frequent cannabis users considered driving under the influence of marijuana to be less dangerous
While driving high is normalized for many cannabis users, most of those surveyed indicated that they still take other factors into consideration before getting behind the wheel, such as travel conditions, their alertness, and how long they feel they should wait to drive after consuming marijuana.
Because of many cannabis users’ skepticism of current laws and policies surrounding marijuana-influenced driving, study participants indicated that they want more research on detection methods as well as guidelines for self-assessing their impairment, how long to wait before they drive, and dosage-based legal limits.
The majority of respondents said that current messages and advertisements tend to overstate the dangers of driving high, stereotype cannabis users, and can be unrealistic.
According to CDOT, cannabis users have a better appreciation for Public Service Announcements (PSA) and advertisements with straightforward approaches, honest tones, and come across as a friend reaching out rather than a parent lecturing.
CDOT is currently developing a series of PSAs based on information from “The Cannabis Conversation” and concepts chosen by the public.
Our research has shown that frequent cannabis consumers show evidence of tolerance, evidencing lower impairment than naive users. No one should drive impaired, but actual impairment should be measured. We need a paradigm shift in our thinking about impairment testing. Please see: https://www.courant.com/health/hc-pol-drugged-driving-experts-20190215-ofk72j2kebe7be5w3flho55cp4-story.html
We (Impairment Science, Inc.) have developed a new public health app that is an objective measure of impairment from cannabis or any source–anything that impairs reaction time, hand-eye coordination, balance and the ability to perform divided attention tasks–it is called DRUID (an acronym for “DRiving Under the Influence of Drugs”) available now in the App Store and Google Play. DRUID statistically integrates hundreds of data points into an overall impairment score and takes just 2 minutes. The first peer-reviewed journal article validating DRUID is here (http://pubs.covd.org/VDR/issue5-1/index.html)
DRUID was featured in Wired magazine: https://www.wired.com/story/portable-field-sobriety-tests/ Cannabis researchers at Yale, Johns Hopkins, WSU and UC Boulder are using DRUID in their labs. Research at Johns Hopkins shows that DRUID can distinguish different levels of impairment from different levels of THC consumed (0mg, 5mg, 20mg). This recent report from the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at John Jay College lists DRUID as the only objective measure of impairment for the roadside: https://thecrimereport.org/2018/11/21/do-we-need-roadside-marijuana-tests/ Our website is http://www.druidapp.com
DRUID allows cannabis users (or others who drink alcohol, use prescription drugs, etc.) to self-assess their own level of impairment and (hopefully) decide against driving if they are impaired. Prior to DRUID, there was no way for an individual to accurately assess their own level of impairment.
After obtaining my Ph.D. at Harvard, I have been a professor of psychology at UMass/Boston for the past 40 years, specializing in research methods, measurement and statistics.
Michael Milburn, Professor (retired)
Department of Psychology
UMass/Boston
Chief Science Officer and Founder
Impairment Science, Inc.