Pubdate: Mon, 06 Jun 2016
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Page: 10
Copyright: 2016 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.torontosun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Maryam Shah

MADD: THE MESSAGING NEEDS TO BE DIFFERENT

With the legalization of marijuana on the horizon, Mothers Against 
Drunk Driving (MADD) Canada is preparing a new message for people who 
toke and drive.

"Just saying no to people is not going to work," MADD Canada CEO 
Andrew Murie said.

The advocacy group is working with Tweed Inc., a medical marijuana 
company based in Ontario, to conduct a three-year national campaign 
aimed at motorists.

Here's what Murie told the Toronto Sun in a recent interview:

Q: How is MADD Canada responding to pending legalization of marijuana?

Murie: "We're asking, before the government legalizes marijuana, that 
they put new tools in police officers' hands to allow them to 
apprehend drug-impaired drivers, because drug-impaired driving is on 
the increase and with legalization, if nothing's done, we'll have a 
lot more tragedies on our roads."

Q: We know not to drink and drive. What will be your message to the 
public once pot is legalized?

Murie: "What we want to do is educate the public on the best possible 
research, like we've done with alcohol, what the risks are for 
driving under the influence of drugs, and what levels and time frames 
they have to look at before making that decision, before driving. 
Just saying 'Don't do it' doesn't work. People want to be educated on 
that. We want to be able to give people, 'If you smoke marijuana, you 
should wait 'X' number of hours before getting behind the wheel of a car.'"

Q: That's decidedly different from the campaign around drinking and 
driving, which includes an emphasis on how one can wake up under the 
influence after a night of heavy drinking.

Murie: "Yeah, because the dissipation rates are very different. The 
drugs, how they impair you, are very different. You can't just do an 
across-the-board type of message, you have to do what the evidence 
tells you. Alcohol stays in the body for a very long time, so you 
have situations where you could still be impaired above the legal 
limit the next morning, depending on how much you drink. Whereas with 
marijuana, it dissipates out of the body very quickly. So you're not 
going to have a situation where you're severely impaired the next 
morning. So the messaging needs to be very different."

Q: What do you specifically want to see by law enforcement?

Murie: "We want them to be able to apprehend drug-impaired drivers 
like alcohol-impaired drivers. So we want the Criminal Code changed 
to approve the use of oral fluid screening. It's very reliable if 
you've been using drugs in the last six hours. It's absolutely 
essential. If that's not done before legalization, we're going to 
have major issues on our roadways."

- - Note: This interview was condensed for space.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom