The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently announced an initiative to combat driving under the influence of drugs.
The initiative will develop ways to improve safety and reduce deaths from motor vehicle crashes. It was created in response to states legalizing marijuana and to the opioid epidemic.
Driving under the influence of drugs is illegal nationwide.
“Nobody can solve drugged driving alone, but by sharing best practices we can begin to save lives today – we cannot afford to wait,” Heidi King, NHTSA deputy administrator, said. “And by advancing the science and the data, we can address this problem for our communities in the future.”
The initiative will launch March 15 with a summit on the drug problem. Attendees include law enforcement and criminal justice professionals, toxicologists and drug recognition experts, data and policy experts, state and local elected officials, and safety partners.
NHTSA hopes the summit will lead to a national dialogue and a call-to-action. The goal is to determine ways to take measurable steps to address the problem.
Topics at the summit will include testing and measuring driver impairment levels, collecting consistent data and tracking driving under the influence of drugs (DUIDs), enforcing DUID laws, and educating the public on the risk of drug-impaired driving.