Resources: Impaired driving
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Lesson plans
Our three ready-to-use lesson plans on drug-impaired driving can help you engage with grades 9 to 12 students.
Drug-impaired Driving Overview
- Explains how drugs impair driving abilities
- Explores common myths
- Offers prevention strategies
Preventing Drug-impaired Driving
- Demonstrates the impacts of cannabis on brain function
- Explains the legal and social implications of impaired driving
- Explores preventative measures
Drug-impaired Driving: Youth Engagement
- Makes the consequences of impaired driving relevant to youth
- Offers tools to help youth make positive decisions and take action
To request one or more of these lesson plans, please email cycp_cpcj@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.
Handouts
Download handouts to help educate youth about the consequences of impaired driving.
- Brochure: Things you should know about cannabis
- A brochure to help inform youth on cannabis effects and laws, how to reduce potential risks, and how to identify legal cannabis.
- Brochure: The Truth - Youth and Drug-Impaired Driving
- Get informed on the effects of drugs on driving, the law and how to help young people make safe decisions.
- Infographic: Marijuana - We'd like youth to know
- Bust myths and clarify facts with this informative resource for youth.
Video-based learning
Access videos from the RCMP and external sources to support multimedia learning.
Dylan's Party (RCMP)
The RCMP created the video "Dylan's party" for use during school presentations or in a classroom setting. It can help get a discussion started with grades 7-12 students.
The animated video shows a text message conversation between four friends. It introduces the topics of cannabis possession and distribution, impaired driving, and some related consequences.
Transcript - Dylan's Party
Music ♫
A group chat window opens: Party at Dylan's this weekend!
Alex, Sam, Joe and Pat are in group chat.
Alex: Yeah... sooooo...
Sam: Hey what's up?
Alex: I was thinking Dylan's party will be kinda lame... unless I bring ... TREATS!!!
Joe: You mean... PIZZA? (pizza emoji x3)
Alex: No, dude. WEED!!!
Pat: Where are you gonna score weed?
Alex: Parental units!
Pat: MMMMMkay... (thinking emoji)
Alex: PLUS I'll sell some to you guys at a "friends and family discount"!!!
Pat: I'm so down!
Sam: No, thanks - I'm good.
Joe: I'm out. What if the (cops emoji) show up? That would be baaaad...
Pat: You can get in serious (poo emoji) for having weed on you...
Sam: My friend got fined for vaping weed at school... and got suspended.
Joe: OMG (surprised emoji)
Alex: SRSLY you all need to CHILL ... it's not that big a deal!
Pat: Uhhh... we're underage! This is all, like... illegal for us... right?
Sam: So about Friday night? How we getting home AFTER the party?
Joe: Ya - no one best be driving!
Alex: I'd rather crash there than crash my car!! (car emoji)
Sam: (eye roll emoji) Maybe the parentals?
Pat: Or Joe - he's got a car... or we can just walk home ...
Sam: This party is gonna be sick!! CU there!
Alex: Awesome, LATER! (Alex has left the conversation)
Sam: L8R! (Sam has left the conversation)
Pat: (Mic drop emoji) (Pat has left the conversation)
Joe: So yeah... are we going double cheese on that pizza? (pizza emoji x2)
I like cheese...
Uh... hello?
Royal Canadian Mounted Police / Gendarmerie royale du Canada
© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 2019.
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Shattered (RCMP)
This video tells the story of a teen named Sam. Her decision to drive high shattered her life.
Transcript - Shattered
Growing up, I had a pretty normal life at home. Sure, there was the occasional argument here and there, but things were pretty good.
[The primary character, Sam, is sitting in a counselling office. She is mouthing the dialogue as the voiceover speaks. The camera slowly zooms in closer to Sam.]
It's when the fights got a little more frequent later on. That's when it all started for me.
[The scene transitions into one of Sam's memories. She is sitting at a table reading a book. Silhouettes of her parents arguing fade into the scene behind Sam. Out of frustration, she slams her book shut and knocks it off of the table.]
Sort of like a way to cope.
[Animated smoke appears within the frame, and covers up the entire screen.]
I think I was in grade seven or eight when I had my first drink. It was around the same time that I got high for the first time.
[The scene transitions to Sam's memory of her in an outdoor woodsy environment. She is surrounded by friends, clearly at a party. Sam is holding a beer bottle, and begins to drink multiple times out of the bottle.]
It started out as an escape, but eventually became an addition.
[A bathroom mirror appears on the screen, framing Sam and cutting the friends out of the scene.]
No other way to put it, really.
[The scene goes black, and we see present-day Sam within the same mirror, reflecting on her memories.]
Before I knew it, I was in my mid-teens, going down a path I knew I probably shouldn't but… I didn't care.
[A new scene appears, showing Sam attempting to walk across the screen. She is clearly struggling to move forward, and is held back by multiple strings. Eventually, the strings snap, and Sam falls to the ground.]
The people who cared were trying to help. I realize that now. I was seventeen when it got really out of hand. It didn't matter if I was by myself or at a party.
[Sam is running down a street, away from the viewer. She begins to slowly turn around, and as she does so, she is now a miniature version of herself standing in her own full-sized hands. She is surrounded by pills and beer cans.]
I was getting high during the day, on weekends, weeknights - whenever I could.
[The hands open up, and the miniature Sam and the pills begin to fall. She continues to slowly fall, through a stream of pills and beer bottles in a flowing motion. Below Sam, a car appears.]
One night, my friends and I heard of a house party happening on the other side of town. I had driven high before. They didn't try and stop it, they sort of just...went with it. A lot of people say, "ah, I can drive high. I'm good at it."
[After a flashing motion takes over the screen, Sam is now driving a vehicle with her friends in the passenger and rear seats of the car. The scene begins in a profile view of the characters, and switches to a front-facing view.]
I can tell you now, there's no such thing.
[The scene cuts to a close-up of Sam's hands on the steering wheel. As the scene continues, headlights from an oncoming car quickly approach the car, as Sam lifts her hands off of the steering wheel, clearly out of control of the vehicle. The screen fades to black.]
Getting in that car was the worst decision our lives. My decision to drive killed one of my friends that night. While the rest of us survived, we all live with the scars.
[The scene opens to Sam's car, which has been severely crashed into a tree. A cop car is visible in the scene, with its siren swooping in a circular motion. As the siren swoops away from the frame, the scene is black. As the siren swoops into the frame, the scene is lit by the siren.]
From time to time, I still see them around, but we don't talk. I can't face them. Not yet.
[A new scene appears, with Sam sitting alone in the corner of a dark room. Her arms are wrapped around her knees.]
After the crash, I did time. Now I realize why I should share my story.
[Sam remains in the same sitting position, while the scene's background is now a bright white with the silhouette of prison bars shadowing behind her.]
If I could go back today, I would change a lot of things. I'd listen more, I'd talk more, I would make better choices or find other ways to deal with things.
[Sam's face appears in the centre of the screen, and the camera is slowing zooming in. She appears dishevelled, with scratches on her face and unruly hair. This is reflective of Sam's past.]
But honestly, most of all, I wish I could see my friend one last time. That day, I know…will never come.
[Past Sam transitions into current Sam. She appears to be clean and in good health. She is back in the counselling room. The camera slowly zooms out. The scene fades to black.]
(Black screen with white writing)
Royal Canadian Mounted Police / Gendarmerie royale du Canada
© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 2018.
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MADD Canada Awareness and Campaign Videos
MADD Canada videos that demonstrate the effects and consequences of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
More conversation starters
Check out these websites and get the conversation started with youth.
- Don't Drive High campaign (Government of Canada)
- Laws, statistics and videos on the dangers of impaired driving.
- Cannabis Talk Kit (Drug Free Kids Canada)
- Facts to inform conversations with youth about cannabis and driving.
- Impaired Driving (Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction)
- Toolkits, handouts, statistics and strategies to help deter impaired driving.
- MADD Canada Youth Program: My Decisions - MY Voice - MY Right to a Safe Ride Home (MADD Canada)
- Educational programs, resources and support services related to impaired driving.
- Young and New Driver Resource Centre - Parent Resources (Traffic Injury Research Foundation)
- Educational tools and strategies to help keep young drivers safe.
More resources
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