The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) commissioned a report about instructional campaigns on hashish and driving on July 26. The GHSA partnered with Nationwide Alliance to Cease Impaired Driving to create a playbook written particularly for State Freeway Security Workplaces (SHSO).
Governors Freeway Security Affiliation’s Govt Director, Jonathan Adkins, defined the necessity for a playbook that’s updated concerning hashish legalization, general acceptance of hashish by customers, and extra. “As authorized hashish use turns into extra widespread within the U.S., motorists have to know the hazards of driving below the affect,” stated Adkins. “However that message gained’t be heard if it’s outdated, irrelevant or insulting to hashish customers. This new report presents a playbook to assist states develop messaging that resonates with hashish customers and prompts them to chorus from driving for their very own security and the security of everybody else on the highway.”
The report, referred to as “Cannabis Consumers and Safe Driving: Responsible Use Messaging,” is predicated on a wide range of surveys and interviews, and expands upon an unpublished 2021 Hashish Regulators Affiliation white paper with “extra methods and proposals about promising practices that may improve security partnerships and improve the effectiveness of outreach and schooling on hashish use and driving.”
The report states that previous to the pandemic, roughly 21% of drivers concerned in deadly car crashes had THC of their programs. In the course of the pandemic, this proportion rose to 33% (and for comparability, the proportion of individuals with alcohol of their programs was solely 29%). In a survey carried out by AAA Basis for Site visitors Security Tradition Index, drivers view impairment of alcohol and hashish in a different way. When requested about driving whereas inebriated, 95% of individuals believed it was “very or extraordinarily harmful.” When requested the identical query about hashish, solely 69% responded with the identical reply.
The GHSA report writes that additional schooling is essential to selling secure driving and enforcement. It reviewed instructional campaigns which were carried out in Colorado and Washington, which have been the primary states to legalize hashish. It additionally addressed present schooling efforts that be taught from these earlier campaigns, such because the “easy, non-judgmental” messages in Connecticut which were promoted on social media channels, radio, TV, billboards, bus panels, and printed supplies. Whereas hashish grew to become authorized in Connecticut on July 1, 2021, retail gross sales gained’t start till later this yr. Nevertheless, the report additionally examines an academic marketing campaign in Wyoming, the place hashish is at present nonetheless unlawful.
After reviewing the content material, the report addresses “promising practices” that the authors view as helpful for growing schooling campaigns, corresponding to partnering with hashish trade teams, receiving devoted funding, and utilizing particular wording in marketing campaign messages.
In additional element, the report’s 5 foremost suggestions discover marketing campaign success primarily based on the offered examples.
First, it recommends that funding be derived from hashish gross sales tax income, in partnership with native state legislators. Second, it extremely recommends partnering with a wide range of hashish teams with the shared purpose of client security. “Working collectively, collaborative schooling campaigns can replicate the needs of all companions to assist hold hashish customers secure,” the report defined.
Third, the report additionally defined the significance of the marketing campaign messengers. Authorities leaders and establishments are “usually not good decisions,” so it’s important to decide on revered people who’re part of the hashish neighborhood to get the purpose throughout. The particular phrases chosen for a marketing campaign may also lend to its success and keep credibility, corresponding to avoiding archaic phrases corresponding to pot or weed, or utilizing “client” as an alternative of “consumer.”
Lastly, the report states {that a} marketing campaign message ought to be chosen with care and respect. “Insulting or judging the audience not often improves message reception and turns individuals off, ensuing within the message getting misplaced. Not driving after utilizing hashish ought to be the first focus of informational campaigns, not the usage of hashish itself,” the report explains. “Messaging that appeals to the dangers versus rewards of driving after consuming hashish may be efficient with the audience, which tends to be younger and male. As a result of it isn’t clear what accountable use of hashish actually is or appears to be like like, appeals to ethical sensitivity—normative decisions which might be thought of ‘good’ or ‘proper’—could have a better impact on altering conduct than the standard ‘simply don’t do it’ messaging.”