For the estimated 9,000 16-17 year olds who get their license every day¹, passing their driver's test is the easy part. Earning the keys and trust your parent or guardian is the bigger challenge. You can keep that trust by making responsible decisions, especially behind the wheel.

Unfortunately, many young drivers don't understand the risks associated with marijuana use. Approximately one in six (15%) teens reported driving under the influence of marijuana, a number nearly equivalent to those who reported driving under the influence of alcohol (16%), despite higher prevalence of alcohol consumption among teens.²

A majority (68%) of licensed teen drivers who use drugs regularly report that they "drug and drive."³ Research shows that smoking pot affects concentration, perception, coordination and reaction time, many of the skills required for safe driving – and these effects can last up to 24 hours.⁴

Combining drug use with driving inexperience and risk-taking behavior can lead to disaster on the road. Nearly one in five 16-year-old drivers is involved in a collision in their first year of driving.⁵ Young people 15 to 20 years of age are involved in 14.4 percent of all fatal crashes and 18 percent of all police-reported crashes.⁶

In 2001, an estimated 38,000 high school seniors in the U.S. crashed while driving under the influence of marijuana and 46,000 crashed after driving under the influence of alcohol.⁷ Making a wrong turn at this important crossroads in your life could have deadly consequences.

Read more information on the risks of marijuana and staying drug-free.

Freevibe visitors speak out about drugged driving

Tori
My best-friends father does drugs. I have found his pipe and open packs of marijuana hidden under his couch. I wasn't going through his things i was looking for the remote, but when i found it i could not believe what i saw. I had been in a car with him and he had been driving really fast. I thought that he was just in a hurry, but i don't know he could have been high. I was really scared when i found out that he did drugs. I was scared for my friend.
Respond & post here >>

achase19
hey I'm 15 years old. me and my boyfriend were driving in his car and he was driving. we were both stoned. well he went through a red light and was killed. i just broke my leg and got some cuts. After that happened I made a promise to myself that I would never do anything again and I've been clean since. so my anti-drug is my life.
Respond & post here >>

regretful
I have a twin sister. She is my life. We did some drugs a while back. Stayed out all night long. When we came down, it was horrible. She was driving us back home, and came within an inch of slamming into a telephone pole because she fell asleep at the wheel. I jerked the car back on the road and screamed to wake her up. Then and there we both decided that we were not going to mess with drugs again. We are 21 years old and still have a lot of living to do.
Respond & post here >>

1. Unpublished estimate derived from U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics, October 2004 (Table DL-20: Distribution of Licensed Drivers – 2003 by Sex and Percentage in Each Age Group and Relation to Population).

2. Unpublished estimates derived from U.S. Census Bureau and Monitoring the Future data from O'Malley, Patrick and Johnston, Lloyd, "Unsafe Driving by High School Seniors: National Trends from 1976 to 2001 in Tickets and Accidents After Alcohol, Marijuana and Other Illegal Drugs," Journal of Studies on Alcohol, (64: 305-12), May 2003. [Data show that 15% of U.S. high school seniors surveyed said they drove after using marijuana and 16% drove under the influence of alcohol. Monitoring the Future data are nationally representative.]

3. Students Against Destructive Decisions and Liberty Mutual Group, "Teens Today," 2002.

4. National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, "Marijuana: Facts Parents Need to Know," Revised, November 1998.

5. Williams, Alan; Journal of Safety Research, "Teenage Drivers: Patterns of Risk," (34: 5-15), 2003.

6. U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, "Traffic Safety Facts: Young Drivers," 2004.

7. Unpublished estimate derived from U.S. Census Bureau and Monitoring the Future data from O'Malley, Patrick and Johnston, Lloyd, "Unsafe Driving by High School Seniors: National Trends from 1976 to 2001 in Tickets and Accidents After Alcohol, Marijuana and Other Illegal Drugs," Journal of Studies on Alcohol, (64: 305-12), May 2003. [Data show that 0.94% of U.S. high school seniors surveyed said they were drivers in collisions after using marijuana and 1.16% were drivers in collisions after using alcohol. Monitoring the Future data are nationally representative.]