What is Crossfading, and How Should You Teach About It?

Get up-to-date on this important driving education topic.

In the field of safe driving, drug, and alcohol awareness education, we’ve seen one topic become increasingly prevalent over the past few years: crossfading. 

But what is crossfading, and how should you address it in your education programs?

What is crossfading?

Crossfading is another term for polydrug use, the use of multiple substances, such as alcohol and marijuana/THC/cannabis, at one time. While using these substances on their own can cause harm, using them together increases the risk of dangerous side effects such as dizziness, heart palpitations, paranoia, and panic attacks.

Research has shown that using alcohol and marijuana together may amplify the effects the substances have on their own, with alcohol increasing the body’s absorption of THC from marijuana products. The increased effects of these substances used together can also severely impact people’s attention and driving skills, raising the risk of a crash.

How should I teach about crossfading?

While you may not have taught students about the dangers of crossfading or polydrug use before, you can build your lessons using the curriculum you’ve used to raise awareness about drugs and alcohol used by themselves.

Possibly the most important guidance we can offer is to make sure your lessons are engaging and incorporate hands-on activities, like the Fatal Vision® Polydrug [Alcohol & Marijuana] Goggles Program Kit, to hold students’ attention and safely illustrate the dangers of crossfading. By keeping them engaged, students are more likely to retain the information you teach and carry those lessons with them out in the world.

You can also incorporate facts and statistics about crossfading to help stress the dangers of simultaneous substance use and the negative impact it has on driving abilities. When students learn about the real-world impacts of crossfading, they’ll be more likely to think twice before using alcohol and cannabis together.

For more information on how to teach about the effects of alcohol and marijuana used together, check out these hands-on activities and resources from Fatal Vision, and other ways our team can help you educate about the dangers of polydrug use.

To learn more about polydrug use and for more in-depth answers to questions like “What is crossfading?” check out our blog posts on polydrug use FAQs and polydrug use statistics.

If you have any questions about our polydrug and crossfading educational resources and hands-on learning tools, our team is ready to help! Contact us today online or at 800.272.5023.