Persuasion, Indoctrination, and Inoculation
PSY/285 July 19, 2015
Persuasion, Indoctrination, and Inoculation Driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs create risks for the driver, but everyone else on the road as well. Alcohol and drug use behind the wheel has become second nature in our country, and must be stopped and every case should have the maximum penalty. It has been going on for too long and now with your help we can stop this madness. Each day in the United States, people drive under the influence of alcohol and drugs almost 300,000 times, but fewer than 4,000 are actually arrested for this crime (Federal Bureau of Investigation. Crime in the United States: 2014). According to the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an estimated 9.9 million people aged 12 or older (or 3.8 percent of teens and adults) reported driving under the influence of illicit drugs during the year prior to being surveyed. This was lower than the rate in 2012 (3.9 percent). By comparison, in 2013, an estimated 28.7 million people (10.9 percent) reported driving under the influence of alcohol at least once in the past year (SAMHSA, 2014). In 2012 alone, 10.3 million people reported driving under the influence of illicit drugs in the past year (2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health). Every day, almost 30 people in the United States die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. This amounts to one death every 51 minutes. The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $59 billion. The consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs can be numbing; arrests, property damage, injury and most likely death. Based on information provided by the Bureau of Transportation, every two hours, at least three people are killed in alcohol and drug related highway crashes. Not only can alcohol and drugs are responsible for vehicle deaths but, they can do just as much damage in your own home. Alcohol and drugs can be the abuse of family members as well. The very first day of a newborns life can literally be a matter of life and death if a mother is addicted to alcohol or drugs during pregnancy. If we continue fighting alcohol and drug abuse on our highways, it is possible it could create the improvement inside our homes. So, with your help and the help of others, we can take a stand right now against driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Anti-alcohol and drug awareness programs apply persuasive principles to the fight against driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. It has been discovered, that by triggering people’s cognitive processing skills, we can get people intellectually involved in the fight. Public commitment is another form of persuasion. Seeing others take a stand can induce more and more people to become more involved. The more people that can gather together for a cause, makes a stronger foundation for commitment and progress. Awareness programs and stronger enforcement efforts are having a more positive impact in decreasing these harrowing statistics of death and suffering by the hands of the alcohol and drug induced driver. I am not going to sit here and give a big speech telling everyone not to drive under the influence of drugs and alcohol and pretend that I am not guilty of it myself a few times. I used to drink often and hit the bars and clubs and stay until 2 a.m. until I was really too impaired to drive and then get in my car and get on the highway and let it take me wherever I wanted to go. I had a few close calls getting into an accident. There were also a few times when I was young that I got pulled over and the police officer never noticed that I had been drinking. I wished from the things that I knew now, I could go back and change a few things but this is why I am telling you now not to make the same mistakes as I did. Even though nobody ever got hurt, I should have never gotten under that wheel for any dumb reason I had to do it back then. It was childish and very irresponsible doing the things that I did while driving. When I was 18 I was riding around and met up with other people at our local car wash in my home town. It was where we usually met up at and talked until we found something to do. I lived in a town of 1100 people so; needless to say there wasn’t much to do. It was really late and my neighbor came pulling up at the car wash with another good friend of mine. My neighbor was only 16 and the other guy was only 19. He just won a worker’s compensation settlement two weeks before and took the money and bought himself a brand new mustang. When I walked over to their car I knew immediately that they were very, very drunk. I told them both to go on home and just let me drive them home. I was honestly a little scared for them that night because, even though they always drank every weekend it was this particularly night they had way more than usual. Well they ended up leaving after 15 minutes and before they left I asked them again to let me drive them home. Sometimes it can be really difficult to talk sense into someone drinking (I know this from experience). When they left I thought to myself several times over that I should have ignored what they said and took their keys from them and took them home not matter what they were saying or how mad they were getting. I went home not long after that and then went on to bed. I wake up to a phone call around 9 that morning to be told that they had gotten into an accident. I immediately thought the worst. The thought I had was true. That morning around 6 a.m. they hit another car head on killing the driver instantly and as for the 15 yr old, he was in critical condition. The other car that they hit head on, the gentlemen were actually heading to work that Saturday morning. The driver and the passenger never made it to work and were both dead on scene. Fearing the worst, after a couple of days wondering if my neighbor was going to live, I have to attend one of my best friend’s funeral. He ended up making it out of the accident alive but, for the rest of his life he is handicapped. He suffered from brain damage and many other broke bones and many other surgeries. Today, he now has a health care nurse that comes to his aid every day. His speech is very slurred from his brain injuries. He also has a hard time walking. Doctors had told us that he was going to be a vegetable for the rest of his life. He has recovered so much from what the doctors first thought. I regret a lot of things but this situation tops them all. All I can do now is not let anything like this happen right in from of me again, tell my story, and continue to learn from this. I feel like I can be an extremely strong advocate for the fight against driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. I have seen firsthand the pain and loss that occurs when someone chooses to get behind the wheel while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Not only does the devastation affect the driver, but the family of the lost ones as well. It is your right to make your own choice when it comes to drug and alcohol use. But, when it comes to putting other people in harm’s way, then it no longer becomes a mere right as an American, it becomes a crime. All we can do is continue to teach the dangers involved in while driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, maintain strict enforcement, and we just might have a chance of actually making a difference. In the memory of my good friend, I will continue to do my part and fight against driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
