SADD: More Than Just Preventing Student Drunk Driving

For more than 35 years, this impressive group has promoted a mission of saving lives by empowering young people to confront the risks and pressures that challenge them throughout their daily lives. Some notable accomplishments include:

• receipt of the Edward G. Loveland Memorial Award
• receipt of a letter of commendation from President Bill Clinton
• an invitation to participate in the White House Leadership Conference on Youth, Drug Use and Violence
• an invitation to a special White House event highlighting the decline in youth drug use

S.A.D.D. focuses attention on several issues that impact youth today, but their three core issues follow.

S.A.D.D. supports driver’s licensing laws that establish phases for young drivers such as to permit phase, provisional phase, and unrestricted phase. They also support safety belt use, which is required by law in the state of California. One major safety issue of concern to S.A.D.D. is distracted driving, e.g. texting and driving, cell phone use, looking at something inside or outside of the vehicle, moving to music, grooming, and reaching for an object. As the number of teen car accidents due to distracted driving increases, public information about avoiding distractions becomes all the more relevant.

See our infographic on teen car accident statistics.

S.A.D.D. opposes the legalization of marijuana because: 

• it can lead to increased use
• it sends the message that marijuana is harmless
• studies have conclusively shown that marijuana has an adverse impact on driving

Two large European studies found that drivers with THC in their blood were roughly twice as likely to be culpable for a fatal accident than drivers who had not used drugs or alcohol. Now that California has passed a law legalizing marijuana for adult use, it will become more important than ever to make sure teens follow the rules of the road and understand that California DUI laws encompass any mind-altering substance.

Promoting personal health and safety in teens is an important objective of S.A.D.D. In response to requests of students across the country, S.A.D.D. has started to address issues related to suicide, self-harm, depression, bullying, violence, and body image.

S.A.D.D. supports anti-violence programs in schools, which address increasingly prevalent issues such as hazing, bullying, relationship abuse, and gang activity. They also educate the public on how to recognize signs of abuse.