Want to know more about cannabis and driving? Ask your budtender.

CDOT, in partnership with Learn Brands, has launched an interactive cannabis-impaired driving safety course. Learn Brands is a subscription-based online budtender education platform.

Why budtenders?

Budtenders are a trusted source of information for cannabis consumers and a friendly face to field questions. Educating budtenders is one of the best and most efficient ways to educate cannabis consumers on the laws and dangers of driving high. And having accurate information is key.
The course — a series of educational lessons and quick quizzes — provides cannabis industry workers with the necessary tools to persuade consumers to make smart choices, find alternatives to driving high and understand reasons why they should. It also talks about pressing issues that aren’t talked about enough, like multi-substance impairment also known as polyconsumption. A large percentage of DUIs involving cannabis also involved other substances, most commonly alcohol.

How it works

Cannabis companies create content that markets and educates dispensary workers about their products. They then pay Learn Brands to place that content on their platform. Dispensaries subscribe to the Learn Brands platform and select courses for their employees to take.

The platform also has free, public safety education content available to all, like the CDOT course. CDOT is working with Learn Brands and dispensary companies who subscribe to the service to encourage all their employees to take the course. Employees who finish the course earn a certificate of completion.
Industry partnerships are key

Since Colorado legalized cannabis in 2012, CDOT has worked with the cannabis community and industry to educate consumers about the laws, consequences and dangers of cannabis-impaired driving. Extensive survey research conducted by CDOT has shown that cannabis consumers are much more receptive to messaging that comes from people and organizations in the cannabis industry.

What’s to learn?

A few key takeaways from the course are:

• You can get a DUI if you’re impaired by marijuana.
• Cannabis impairs the brain and physiological functions critical to driving, like reaction time, decision-making skills and peripheral vision.
• This is a very real and serious issue — data from law enforcement agencies show that people are dying on Colorado roads due to cannabis and multi-substance impairment.
• Strategies to avoid putting yourself or others at risk: take a rideshare, just stay home and know how long you need to wait after consuming to drive.

To access CDOT’s cannabis-impaired driving course on Learn Brands, visit learnbrands.com to log in or sign up for an account.