A federal agency is preparing a series of public education campaigns meant to deter driving after using marijuana—notably choosing messaging that leans into cannabis culture, rather than peddling negative stereotypes about consumers as government-backed PSAs have historically done.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) “If You Feel Different, You Drive Different” campaign kicked off earlier this year, with ads discouraging marijuana-impaired driving around Thanksgiving and winter holidays like Christmas.
Looking ahead, NHTSA also has public service announcements slated for key 2025 dates, including the unofficial marijuana holiday 4/20, the Fourth of July and Halloween.
What stands out about the messages and graphics is the departure from fear-mongering and negative depictions of cannabis consumers that’s long been a hallmark of federal marijuana PSAs, such as those funded by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in the 1990s and 2000s that perpetuated stigmas about laziness or forgetfulness.
Instead, NHTSA seems to be leveraging cannabis culture, with warnings against impaired driving that are coupled with images meant to appeal to marijuana consumers.
Via NHTSA.
For example, the 4/20-targeted ad urges people to get a “sober driver” if they’re indulging in the cannabis festivities. Or, “better yet,” it says, “get delivery.”
“It doesn’t matter what you call it, if you are impaired, do not get behind the wheel of a vehicle,” a sample press release meant for local and state officials says. “We are asking our community members to use good judgement, obey the law, and make safe choices when driving a vehicle. Your decisions don’t just affect you—they affect everyone on the road.”
NGTSA’s Fourth of July PSA has a historic theme, with an image of rolled-up parchment in the style of the Declaration of Independence that says: “We the people want safer roads.” NHTSA also included recommended messages for signs displayed over roadways during the holiday.
The agency’s Halloween design shows a web with a marijuana leave woven in the middle, imploring consumers not to get “tangled up driving high.”
Virginia cannabis regulators recently used one of the NHTSA-produced ads pegged to Christmas, which came on the heels of regulatory agencies in other states posting other holiday-related advice around marijuana—for example guidance on how to legally “give the gift of green.”
The federal Christmas-themed ad features what appears to be a stoned Christmas tree-shaped cannabis bud and includes the reminder: “If you enjoy the holiday greenery, find a sober ride.”
It’s not uncommon for officials in states where marijuana is legal to launch campaigns ahead of the holiday season to encourage safe, responsible use of the drug. In November, for example, multiple states, as well as federal officials in the U.S. and Canada, issued reminders about their marijuana laws ahead of Thanksgiving. Some urged adults to consume responsibly if they planned to partake during the holiday, while others warned people to avoid traveling across political borders with cannabis.
A NHTSA PSA for Thanksgiving shows a dinner table set that includes a plate with cannabis nugs and a joint on it, with the message: “Hand over the keys if you’re passing around the weed. Plan a safe and sober ride.”
Via NHTSA.
In recent years, cannabis regulators across the country—including in Virginia and New Jersey, along with California, New York, Massachusetts and others—have similarly marked the holiday season with messages about gifting marijuana, keeping cannabis products secure and even making infused Christmas cookies.
In 2021, meanwhile, NHTSA tried to get the word out about the dangers of impaired driving through an ad featuring a computer-generated cheetah smoking a joint and driving a convertible.
Critics noted that the world’s fastest land animal hardly fits the stereotype of a cannabis consumer that the government has historically played into, while other commenters pointed out at the time that the ad made the cheetah look confusingly cool as he’s broke the law.
The agency also played on horror-movie tropes in a 2020 ad featuring two men running for their lives from an axe murderer. The pair ultimately find a vehicle to escape the scene, but the driver pauses before he turns the key in the ignition. “Wait wait wait,” he says. “I can’t drive. I’m high.”
While it’s widely understood that driving under the influence of cannabis is dangerous, the relationship between consumption and impairment is a messy one.
In October, a scientific review of available evidence on the relationship between cannabis and driving found that most research “reported no significant linear correlations between blood THC and measures of driving,” although there was an observed relationship between levels of the cannabinoid and reduced performance in some more complex driving situations.
“The consensus is that there is no linear relationship of blood THC to driving,” the paper concluded. “This is surprising given that blood THC is used to detect cannabis-impaired driving.”
That report was by no means the first research to challenge the popular view that THC blood levels are a suitable proxy for driving impairment. In 2015, for example, NHTSAconcluded that it’s “difficult to establish a relationship between a person’s THC blood or plasma concentration and performance impairing effects,” adding that “it is inadvisable to try and predict effects based on blood THC concentrations alone.”
In a separate report earlier this year, NHTSA said there’s “relatively little research” backing the idea that THC concentration in the blood can be used to determine impairment, again calling into question laws in several states that set “per se” limits for cannabinoid metabolites.
“Several states have determined legal per se definitions of cannabis impairment, but relatively little research supports their relationship to crash risk,” that report says. “Unlike the research consensus that establishes a clear correlation between [blood alcohol content] and crash risk, drug concentration in blood does not correlate to driving impairment.”
Similarly, a Department of Justice (DOJ) researcher said in February that states may need to “get away from that idea” that marijuana impairment can be tested based on the concentration of THC in a person’s system.
“If you have chronic users versus infrequent users, they have very different concentrations correlated to different effects,” Frances Scott, a physical scientist at the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Office of Investigative and Forensic Sciences under DOJ, said.
That issue was also examined in a recent federally funded study that identified two different methods of more accurately testing for recent THC use that accounts for the fact that metabolites of the cannabinoid can stay present in a person’s system for weeks or months after consumption.
Back in 2022, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) sent a letter to the Department of Transportation (DOT) and NHTSA seeking an update on the status of a federal report into testing THC-impaired drivers. The department was required to complete the report under a large-scale infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden (D) signed, but it missed that deadline and is unclear how much longer it will take.
Last summer, a congressional report for a Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) bill said that the House Appropriations Committee “continues to support the development of an objective standard to measure marijuana impairment and a related field sobriety test to ensure highway safety.”
A study published in 2019 concluded that those who drive at the legal THC limit—which is typically between two to five nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood—were not statistically more likely to be involved in an accident compared to people who haven’t used marijuana.
Separately, the Congressional Research Service in 2019 determined that while “marijuana consumption can affect a person’s response times and motor performance … studies of the impact of marijuana consumption on a driver’s risk of being involved in a crash have produced conflicting results, with some studies finding little or no increased risk of a crash from marijuana usage.”
Another study from 2022 found that smoking CBD-rich marijuana had “no significant impact” on driving ability, despite the fact that all study participants exceeded the per se limit for THC in their blood.
Photo courtesy of Martin Alonso.
A federal agency is preparing a series of public education campaigns meant to deter driving after using marijuana—notably choosing messaging that leans into cannabis culture, rather than peddling negative stereotypes about consumers as government-backed PSAs have historically done. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) “If You Feel Different, You Drive Different” campaign kicked off Read More
