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VIDEO: New ads target drug-driving

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Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:04a.m.

An actor pretends to be high on marijuana while driving

An actor pretends to be high on marijuana while driving

A bold new road safety campaign using real hidden camera footage is set to challenge New Zealanders' attitudes towards people who take drugs and drive.

Driving under the influence of drugs is about to get the same hardline treatment as driving drunk in a series of New Zealand Transport Agency commercials to hit television screens this week.

The ads show unsuspecting passengers getting into cars with actor drivers pretending to be under the influence of cannabis, prescription medication, ecstasy and 'P'.

A hidden camera in the car captured the passenger's reaction to a drugged driver, with some complacent and others nervous or even angry.

The ads finish with the tagline: "Drug driving. Do you think it's a problem?"

NZTA chief executive Geoff Dangerfield said the hardcore approach was needed to challenge the commonly-held belief that driving under the influence of drugs isn't a problem in New Zealand.

In fact, a recent study of deceased drivers shows a third had used cannabis with or without alcohol or other drugs, and 14 per cent had used drugs other than alcohol or cannabis.

"We know that driving under the influence of drugs is common and widespread, yet our research shows that only one in 10 New Zealanders see it as a problem," Mr Dangerfield said.

"Many people believe that they can drive safely on drugs, or that drugs actually make them drive better."

He said current attitudes to drug driving mirror historic attitudes to drink driving, but it was time for that to change.

"This campaign aims to challenge those perceptions by raising awareness of the issue, getting people talking and generating debate."

The ads run for six weeks from this Saturday and mark the first stage of a long-term behavioural change campaign that involves YouTube, Facebook, web forums and billboards.

NZTA carried out the covert filming over four days last year, telling people they were being driven to a costume fitting for a TV commercial before revealing the true reason for the car trip.

NZN

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Comments

15 Jan 2012 07:10p.m.

brendon wrote:

nigel i also agree, and i myself prefer to drive "stoned" as they put it because i feel more alert actually concentrate more and also am more worried about the drivers around me etc and then u also add the paranoia of getting pulled over etc so u drive slower and to the conditions alot better and also thus the problem different drugs different people different reactions also doseages and limitations differ, i myself get the "opposite" effect than what others say which is slow down n become a "baked" potatoe i get energy more creative and it makes my brain more think more actively...

14 Jan 2012 03:41p.m.

bukster wrote:

I wish people like Nigel and James would stop saying things like smoking stoned isn't as bad as driving drunk. I don't care if it is only 1% as bad as driving drunk, it's still not OK. I support drug law reform in this country. I think it is long overdue. However, legal or not, NEVER drive under the influence of any impairment causing substance. If you want to smoke cannabis, I respect your choice but please don't ever drive after doing it.

12 Jan 2012 04:51p.m.

james wrote:

I completely agree with nigel. A few years back they had a story on this on TV one news and they put it to the test! Whether they used natural THC or synthetic THC, in the practical test they did the driver when (impaired on THC) was concentrating more and because of this he passed with a better score. Marijuana is the name of a poisonous tobacco plant. Canabis Sativa is the plants true name, and Canabis couldn't be anymore differen't then alcohol if it tried. I beleave that if people can handle thier recreational drugs mentally and physicly then it should be thier choice. but yea alcohol is a rotten drug, it makes you unaware and detached from real life, it impaires your judement and sents of decency. Canabis is quite the opposite! AlCOHOL is the drug poisonong and ruining our society!

12 Jan 2012 01:45p.m.

nigel wrote:

According to latest statistics out of the US car crash deaths have declined 9% in states where medical marijuana is available and is directly attributable to that. You are twenty times more likely to crash if you are drunk than if you are intoxicated on marijuana. Ideally we want everyone to be completely unhindered by intoxicants when they are behind the wheel of a car. But if we can’t have that better they are stoned than pissed isn’t it? I do not accept that drug driving is a problem worthy of all this attention. I think there is a bit of inveigling going on here, a little bit of that obfuscation the powers that be are so fond of invoking when they want to avoid an issue! Alcohol and driving is actually the problem, Drug driving is the scapegoat, the whipping boy, the diversion. The Saudi Arabians think we are mad for making Alcohol available to the general public and they are right.

12 Jan 2012 01:44p.m.

jan wrote:

the ad teaser shown is lame. no you should not drive on drink or drugs but this is a crap ad, worse than the mantrol one and thats saying something. I hope the ad people come up with a better one. Also the "actors" driving all seemed to calm, Ive been lead to believe people go nuts on drugs and behave eraticaly I bet the passengers would probably react in the same way they did if the calm driver told them that he had just finished murdering someone, I dont think they knew how to behave to the calm sentence of "ive just finished some drugs.". but good that the drive/drug thing is finally being addressed.

12 Jan 2012 12:20p.m.

Alex wrote:

How can the actors actually feign a drug induced situation unless they've each taken any of the named drugs before in real life? They would have been fully alert the entire time and a real user would probably be impaired.