Until there are No More Victims®, MADD will continue to speak up and fight for stronger laws. Because the truth is, the solution couldn’t be simpler. It all boils down to a single choice. A commitment to never driving impaired.



 
TEEN DRINKING PREVENTION

At MADD, we know that our hopes for a safer future are riding on tomorrow’s drivers. By getting today’s youth off to a good start, we are taking a giant step toward fulfilling our vision of a nation without drunk driving. That’s why we’re focused on tackling underage drinking, a problem that threatens the safety of our kids and endangers entire communities, now and down the road.

HOW DO WE FIGHT DRUGGED DRIVING?

Law enforcement officers are our best allies in the effort to reduce drugged driving and are the heroes who make our roads safe.

Much like with drunk driving, the best way to deter and detect would-be drugged drivers is through the use of high-visibility enforcement tactics. These include sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols.

Because of the wide array of drugs and their varying levels of impairment, training is key to ridding our roadways of drugged drivers. That’s why MADD supports the full implementation of specialized training programs to assist law enforcement officers in detecting drugged drivers.

 
Specialized Training

Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST) remains the foundation of impaired driving detection and enforcement for some 800,000 officers across the country. Some states, however, do not require SFST training for officers assigned to patrol functions. MADD expects all officers to have the basic SFST skills to detect an impaired driver on the roads.

Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) was created by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to address the gap between the traditional Standard Field Sobriety Test training given to officers to assist in detecting impaired drivers and the DEC/DRE program. The class requires 16 hours of classroom training versus the three-phase curriculum required to become a certified DRE.

The Drug Evaluation and Classification (DEC) program, also referred to as the Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) program, was developed to help officers identifying drug-impaired drivers. To become a DRE, officers must follow a rigorous three-phase training curriculum and learn to conduct a standardized and systematic 12-step evaluation consisting of physical, mental and medical components.