{"id":119676,"date":"2018-08-02T16:19:54","date_gmt":"2018-08-02T16:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madd.org\/?p=12392"},"modified":"2022-06-13T11:31:01","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T11:31:01","slug":"drugs-endangering-our-roads-madd-national-president-tells-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madd.org\/drugs-endangering-our-roads-madd-national-president-tells-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"“Drugs endangering our roads,” MADD National President tells Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
MADD National President Colleen Sheehey-Church<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nLast month, I had the honor to once again testify in Washington D.C. in front of members of the U.S. Congress at the House Energy and Commerce Committee\u2019s Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection.<\/p>\n

I joined three other panelists to examine the drug-impaired driving that is an increasing part of our society today and another hazard to our highways and roadways.<\/p>\n

All panelists concluded that while drugs are playing a larger part in impairment across the country \u2014 alcohol is still the leading drug and killer on our roads today.<\/p>\n

On July 10, 2004, my son Dustin Church was killed by a drunk and drugged driver. I come to this hearing with a different perspective and years of education around alcohol-impaired fatalities. No parent … no one should go thru the pain of knowing your child is dead because of someone\u2019s choice to drink and do drugs and then drive a vehicle.<\/p>\n

How to fight drugged driving?<\/h3>\n

The good news is that the best way to combat drug-impaired driving is to do more impaired driving enforcement. MADD believes that stopping drunk and drugged driving begins with strong law enforcement. I encouraged the Energy and Commerce Committee to work with law enforcement across the country to emphasize the importance of traffic enforcement.<\/p>\n

In 2015, MADD updated our mission statement to include \u201chelp fight drugged driving.\u201d As one of the largest victim\u2019s assistance organizations in the country, we want victims of drugged driving to know that we are here to serve their needs. We also know that the legalization of recreational and medicinal marijuana, the national opiate crisis and the prevalence of prescription drugs in our society can only lead to more drug impaired driving on our roadways. What we don\u2019t know, however, is the role of drugs as causal factors in traffic crashes. This is why more research is needed.<\/p>\n

\"\"