These glasses are supposed to simulate the effect of a joint

In the race for the cannabis use prevention Before you get behind the wheel, there’s no shortage of good ideas. For example, we’ve already mentioned the rolling papers containing a warning message. Here’s a new tool: “high” simulation goggles.

The Fatal Vision: Marijuana Simulation Experience, as it’s commonly known, is a pair of tinted glasses designed to simulate «a distorted perception of information, a lack of coordination, and slowed decision-making resulting from recreational marijuana use.» A promotional video promises that users of these glasses «will experience the mind-altering effects of THC« .

Students in Indiana tested these glasses and their reflexes by trying to find their way out of a maze or catch a ball in mid-air. The tests were made more difficult by the glasses, which filter out red light and impair vision—effects that, according to Innocorp, the company behind the glasses, mimic those of smoking a joint.

That, in fact, is the whole point of the controversy surrounding this prevention kit. According to experts cited by the WaPo, it is difficult to replicate the complex effects of cannabis on the brain. Removing the color red from a person’s field of vision and asking students to perform tasks that rely on that color does not truly reflect the effects of cannabis.

Joseph Palamar, a professor at New York University, studies drug use among adolescents. «These glasses are supposed to simulate the impairment resulting from the use of marijuana »Fear has been used for decades as a disinformation tactic, and these glasses don't seem far removed from that method.".

The price of a «high glasses» kit, which includes prevention activities, starts at 975$ (875€), and each additional pair of glasses costs 200$ (180€). It’s a lucrative business, but one with no evidence of effectiveness, according to Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford who specializes in the study of drug addiction and dependence. «It’s not going to work, and I’m afraid that schools and parents are simply being taken advantage of.».

In any case, the internet has already jumped on the topic, at Innocorp’s expense. Reddit users are wondering whether «marijuana glasses» will lead to the use of «heroin glasses» (with reference to the cannabis as a gateway drug), whether being colorblind means you're high all the time, or whether wearing these glasses while high amplifies the effects or cancels them out.

A free meme, but a missed opportunity to ensure effective prevention.