BERKELEY COUNTY- From Friday, August 15, through Monday, September 1, the West Virginia Governor’s Highway Safety Program, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and state agencies in Pennsylvania and Maryland, will be working alongside local law enforcement for the “If You Feel Different, You Drive Different. Drive High, Get a DUI.” high-visibility enforcement campaign. The goal is to help prevent drug-impaired driving, to save lives, and to prevent serious injury. The GHSP is urging drivers to refrain from driving impaired.
“The bottom line is that no matter what the substance is, if a driver is impaired, they should not be driving,” said Jack McNeely, Director of the GHSP. ”We want everyone to enjoy the last weeks of summer and the Labor Day holiday. We also want everyone to understand that it’s our first priority to keep people safe. Violating West Virginia’s drug-impaired driving laws can have severe and lasting consequences, both financially and potentially posing a risk to life.”
Many people believe that being high doesn’t affect driving abilities, but they are wrong. It has been proven that marijuana can slow reaction times, impair cognitive performance, and make it more difficult for drivers to keep a steady position in their lane. In 2024, more than 30 percent of DUI arrests involved drivers impaired by drugs. In two GHSP regions, that percentage is 44 percent…