Stoned drivers targeted in new $1 million Colorado ad campaign

For an indication of the efforts that are being made to target marijuana abuse across the age groups, clients of addiction counselors in Miami need only look to Colorado, where $1 million television commercials have been unveiled under the tagline "Drive High, Get a DUI". The adverts mark the first time since marijuana's legalization in Colorado in 2012 that the state has reminded residents of the dangers of using pot before driving.

The resultant campaign will no doubt strike a chord with many of those parents concerned about possible marijuana abuse by sons or daughters who may be learning to drive or already qualified to take independent control of a vehicle. The commercials show a series of marijuana users spacing out during day-to-day tasks, including a middle-aged man who prematurely celebrates hanging a flat-screen TV before seeing it crash to the floor, as well as a basketball player in the playground leaving his teammates frustrated by continuously dribbling at the foul line.

Such adverts from the Colorado Department of Transportation - in another instance featuring a backyard griller thwarted in his attempts to turn on his gas grill due to the absence of the propane tank - are hilarious to watch. However, the campaign's serious aims will be well-understood by any parent who has ever had to sought the services of addiction counselors in Miami. According to Avon police chief and chairman of Colorado's Interagency Task Force on Drunk Driving, Bob Ticer, "Enforcement is very important when it comes to impaired driving, but education is equally important."

What may greater alarm the parents calling upon the assistance of addiction counselors in Miami are the difficulties that Colorado has encountered in attempting to keep track of the number of marijuana-impaired drivers in the state. Only in January - when marijuana began to be sold by retail - did records began to be kept by Colorado State Patrol. Out of a total of 61 drivers to show evidence of alcohol or drug impairment, 31 were logged as having been stoned. The problems in maintaining accurate statewide tallies of marijuana-impaired drivers arose from such cases having previously charged under the same law as drunk-driving.

However, signs of the adverse consequences of marijuana legalization were aplenty in the only other state to have taken that step so far, Washington. There, there was an almost 25 per cent rise in the number of drivers testing positive for pot in 2013 compared to the previous year, taking the total annual figure past the 1,300 mark. Levels were sufficiently high in 720 of those to result in an automatic drugged driving conviction. It's yet more food for thought for those who may have previously presumed that the hardest work of addiction counselors in Miami was done.

Editor’s Note: Family Recovery Specialists (http://www.familyrecoveryspecialists.com) are represented by the search engine advertising and digital marketing specialists Jumping Spider Media. Email: info@jumpingspidermedia.co.uk or call: +44 (0)20 3070 1959 / +34 952 783 637.