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Many U.S. adults came of age during the Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk campaign that began in the early 1980s and was focused on raising awareness around the dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol. In subsequent decades, strict state laws were enacted that lowered the legal limit on blood alcohol concentration. But when it comes to drugs, no comparable awareness campaigns or regulations exist.
So it’s not surprising that many people aren’t aware of how much is too much to drive when it comes to drugs, or of how dangerous drugged driving is. This includes driving while taking prescription medications that can cause drowsiness, cannabis – now legal for recreational use in nearly half the country – and illegal street drugs.
But the risks are as perilous as driving under the influence of alcohol, explains University of Mississippi public health expert Andrew Yockey, who studies the rising prevalence of drugged driving. “The result is the same: Impaired judgment, dulled reflexes and devastating outcomes on the road,” he writes.
Yockey walks through the complexities of testing drivers for drugs and the resulting patchwork of state laws that leave people unsure of whether they are safe to drive. But one easy-to-remember message, writes Yockey, is that “if you feel ‘different,’ you’re probably driving differently too.”
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Amanda Mascarelli
Senior Health and Medicine Editor
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Driving under the influence of drugs – be it prescription, legal or illegal – is just as deadly as alcohol.
Darwin Brandis/iStock via Getty Images Plus
Andrew Yockey, University of Mississippi
Driving under the influence of drugs is just as deadly as alcohol impairment, but regulations lag far behind.
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Politics + Society
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Arie Perliger, UMass Lowell
Kirk’s killing reflects a broader political impasse in the US, where a significant percentage of the population supports political violence of some form.
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Ethics + Religion
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Ryan Burge, Washington University in St. Louis
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Education
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Tara Sonenshine, Tufts University
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Health + Medicine
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Joanna Fong-Isariyawongse, University of Pittsburgh
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Mohammad S. Jalali, Harvard University; Zeynep Hasgül, Harvard University
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Rhonda Conner-Warren, Michigan State University
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International
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John Joseph Chin, Carnegie Mellon University; Joe Wright, Penn State
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Environment + Energy
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Richard Gerhold, University of Tennessee; Jessie Richards, University of Tennessee
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Science + Technology
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Thomas Morgan, Arizona State University
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