Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Hawaii’s 2018 fall conference, “Drugs and Driving — A Call to Action,” shed light on Hawaii’s serious struggle with drug-impaired driving and what it will take to combat it.

Thanks to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and other partners, the event, a nationwide first for MADD, successfully convened national experts, local stakeholders, youth ambassadors and other community members to address the growing issue.

Drug-impaired driving has become an urgent national and local concern, especially for our youth. The 2016 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) reported that drugs were present in 43 percent of Hawaii’s fatally-injured drivers, often teens and young adults. An epidemiologist from Hawaii’s Department of Health disclosed that Hawaii ranks 8th highest in the nation for drivers involved in fatal crashes who tested positive for illicit substances.

Why?

Hawaii’s youth are using marijuana (THC), methamphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy and other synthetic drugs, many through vaping. Recently licensed, they’re inexperienced drivers who misbelieve — wrongly believe — that certain drugs, like cannabis (THC), have little to no effect on their driving behavior. They also combine drugs and alcohol, “polydrug use,” without understanding the risks.

Drugs are highly complex, encompassing hundreds of psychoactive substances that affect individuals differently. While blood alcohol level is easy to measure and correlate to impairment, the relationship between drugs and driving impairment is harder to ascertain, posing challenges for local law enforcement and the courts. Corroboration often requires a blood test analyzed by a mainland toxicology lab, a costly and lengthy process.

Additionally, penalties for driving under the influence of drugs are not yet understood well enough by the general public to discourage behavior and prevent drug-impaired crashes.

For maximum effectiveness, these penalties must be publicized and the consequences imposed swiftly enough to send the message that drugged driving will be treated as severely as drunken driving.

We need a unified commitment to education and prevention. We must understand how young drivers receive information about drugs and the messaging that resonates with them. We need to empower youth to become advocates and promote understanding about the dangers of drug-impaired driving among their peers. We also need quality assessments and widespread knowledge that OVUII (operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant) is a serious problem with serious consequences.

To that end, this past holiday season, youth volunteers from Kamehameha Schools and Hawaii Pacific University developed a peer-to-peer video campaign urging residents of all ages to “Tell Your Friends. Tell Your Family.” about the dangers of drug-impaired driving.

MADD Hawaii implores all members of our community to take an active role in creating a future of No More Victims® by raising your voice for change in the following ways:

>> Parents: Speak with your kids, beginning at middle school, the age when our youth volunteers say they’re most impressionable about social habits that will affect the way they think about drugs and driving.

>> Young adults: Tell your friends, bust the myths and lead by example. Yours is the most vulnerable demographic, as car crashes are the leading cause of death in teenagers.

>> Educators: Put these tools in your programs — sporting events, classrooms, extracurriculars.

>> Public: Join our awareness campaign.

Every effort you make, big and small, contributes to a better future in Hawaii.

It is time to come together to prepare our keiki to be safe as they become independent. It is time to make our roads safer for all of Hawaii’s residents. It is time to save lives.

Carol McNamee is founder of MADD Hawaii; Arkie Koehl chairs the group’s public policy committee.