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Education May Be Key In Preventing Marijuana-Impaired Driving

Marijuana plant photo
Flickr/Creative Commons

Now that recreational marijuana is legal in Michigan, the state may have some hurdles to overcome when it comes to educating people on the dangers of driving high on pot.

At least that’s what happened in Colorado.

Colorado approved the legalization of recreational marijuana in 2012 and sales started two years later.

Shortly after, the Colorado Department of Transportation held focus groups with marijuana users for its public awareness campaign.

That’s when they learned some users didn’t know they could get a DUI for driving impaired on marijuana.

Samuel Cole is with the Colorado Department of Transportation.

“People have to understand that they can be arrested. They don’t want to find out the hard way or in many cases the tragic way of driving impaired and causing a crash,” says Cole.

The Michigan State Police say they have $300,000 set aside for messaging against driving impaired on any type of drug slated for fiscal year 2019. State police say that money was set aside before recreational marijuana became legal.

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