CDOT makes driving high “uncomfortable”

Colorado continues to see cannabis-involved traffic crashes and fatalities. Amongst heavy users, there’s an entrenched view that it’s okay to drive high. To confront this ongoing challenge, CDOT launched a two-year, statewide research initiative to engage Coloradans in a meaningful discussion about marijuana-impaired driving and to learn more about the public’s attitudes, beliefs and behaviors on the topic. This led to our latest campaign, “Driving High Should Make You Uncomfortable.” Through a mix of media, we showed that high-risk professionals would never drive high because lives are at stake every time they get behind the wheel. Our goal is to make heavy users consider the similar risks of driving high and think twice about what they are doing.

As part of this statewide research initiative, CDOT also invited local Latino and African American leaders to engage in a meaningful discussion about marijuana and driving within their respective communities. In early 2020, CDOT conducted additional consumer surveys designed to identify culture/language preferences and beliefs associated with drug-impaired driving within the state’s Latino and Black communities.
 
These findings led to the development of two additional marijuana-impaired driving campaigns designed to remind users, in a culturally and linguistically relevant way, that consuming any amount of marijuana before driving puts you at risk for a DUI.