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The police can quickly check if a driver has drunk

2nd May 2002, Page 44
2nd May 2002
Page 44
Page 45
Page 44, 2nd May 2002 — The police can quickly check if a driver has drunk
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

too much alcohol—but identifying a driver under the influence of drugs is much harder. So with the increasingly relaxed attitude to cannabis from the powers-thatbe, what dangers do drugs, including legal medicines, pose to the haulage industry? Adam Hill investigates.

Tests to establish how much alcohol a driver has consumed have been around for years. While problems of perception remain, and drinkdriving fatalities actually increased year-on-year between 1991 and 2000, public awareness of the inherent danger of drinking and driving is higher than ever.

But it is a different story when it comes to other drugs. For a start, and despite the fact that we are seeing the beginnings of a change in the nature of the public discussion of the issues between police, pressure groups and the health lobby, the word "cannabis" still causes an attack of the vapours in the politically influential parlours of Middle England homes.

This may all change. If cannabis is legalised—and the prospect has switched from 'ludicrous' 10 years ago to 'possible' in the next five as the police take a more relaxed attitude to possession in some London boroughs—then driving after smoking a joint may become legal. If it is legal for teenagers, there is no reason why

it should not be so for professional truck and bus drivers.

One thing is sure: over the past 15 years, the number of people killed in road accidents who had traces of medicinal or illegal drugs in their bodies has risen more than 400%. During investigations of crashes between 1996 and a000 the Transport Research Laboratory found 24% of corpses tested positive. Of course, this does not mean that drugs were a factor in all these accidents—but the incidence of drug taking is rising inexorably.

Recent consumption

One of the problems of assessing the effects of drugs in road traffic accidents is that they metabolise differently to alcohol. Alcohol is broken down by the body at a fixed rate, meaning that only recent consumption will show up. But drugs like cannabis stay detectable in the body for weeks—detectable, but not necessarily incapacitating the user.

In another survey, 27% of companies in all sectors reported a problem with drug use, and two-thirds of all respondents said they would struggle to recognise drug use among their staff. Very few hauliers have schemes in place to test employees, although Sainsbury's is rumoured to be launching one in the summer. But John Mitchell (Grangemouth) may be more typical. Customer services manager Graham Johnstone admits that the company has hardly thought about a drugs testing policy yet: "If it is the way the rest of society is going, then we will have to look at it. One of the challenges is that a lot of drivers start the day early and are gone before anyone sees them. If they start at 8am and they are drunk, you would smell it on them. But if they start at 5ani, they're away."

The Department of Transport refuses to comment on its approach to road safety should cannabis be legalised, but it promises to target drug users in its road safety publicity

later this year as part of its campaign against drink-driving. A spokeswoman says: "We recognise that it is an ongoing problem."

Part of the problem is the lack of a reliable roadside test for drug use among drivers. A spokeswoman for Strathclyde police explains: "If we think people are impaired through drugs we can get them to carry out a series of physical movements, such as walking in a straight line. But we don't have the equivalent of an alcometer."

Political issue

Rob Tunbridge, who rejoices in the title of head of impairment studies at the Transport Research Laboratory, says: "People are not necessarily driving around smoking a joint. But there is much more cannabis taking and driving going on and ills very much a political issue." The old refrain "I actually drive better when I'm drunk" has not been heard in TRL's research on cannabis. "Our experiments show the effects of alcohol and cannabis are different," Tunbridge explains. "When people smoke cannabis, they are aware they are impaired. This awareness makes them drive slower, ma cautiously—but not necessarily more safel) Tunbridge refers to a recent newspaper artic which suggested that combining cannabis ar alcohol might impair a driver's abilities le: than alcohol alone. This claim was based c research leaked from TRL, but Tunbric4 stresses that the story had misinterpreted ti research. The TRL will put the record straig: with its own report next month.

So much for the roadside. What about c your premises? Short of painting a white lb in the traffic office and asking staff to wa along it each morning, how do you know yc haven't got someone under the influence drugs in your building? As one haulier puts "I wouldn't know if someone was on druj unless they were falling all over the place. might just think 'he's very happy'," Whatever happens, the TRL's upcomir research on cannabis and alcohol use is unlike to invalidate the common-sense approach: you are going to drive, don't do either.


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