Although it's often ignored, driving under the influence of class A drugs is becoming increasingly common, writes Conor Pope
While it remains responsible for so many fatalities on Irish roads each year, drink driving has become almost entirely unacceptable in this country. The slow decline in the numbers prepared to have a few pints and drive home is attributable to a better equipped, more vigilant Garda force and years of effective campaigning by various road safety authorities. Drink driving kills and everyone knows it.
The same cannot be said about the growing numbers who routinely drive after a couple of joints or a line or two of cocaine. While there are no concrete figures available in the Republic, studies carried out in the UK show that the number of people taking drugs and driving has increased six-fold in 20 years.
In the 1980s in Ireland, the combination of class A drugs and fast cars was largely confined to the pages of Hunter S Thompson's novel Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. Now, with drugs cheaper to buy, easier to get and far more socially acceptable to take, the problem of people driving with a mixture of legal and illegal drugs in their system is not so unusual.
And it is a problem, and "a significant" one, according to experts. The head of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety (MBRS), Prof Denis Cusack, is to the fore in highlighting the dangers posed by driving under the influence of drugs.
"It is not in the public mind as much as drink driving," he says. "There is not the same level of awareness of drug driving but while the awareness may not be the same the consequences can be just as deadly."
It is not uncommon to hear people who would never even consider drinking and driving argue passionately that there is nothing remotely wrong with smoking cannabis and taking the car for a spin.
They will tell you that it improves their concentration, slows them down and actually makes them better drivers.
Prof Cusack doesn't buy it and says such people are fooling themselves. "The same argument can be heard about alcohol. People argue that they are better drivers after two pints. The point is both alcohol and drugs are intoxicants," he says.
"People may feel that they can drive better and might think that it helps them to concentrate but all the medical evidence says that drugs impair ones ability to drive safely."
He describes amphetamines as "notorious" for giving people a false sense of what they can do behind the wheel of a car. For its part, cannabis causes impaired perception, distorts time and induces relaxation - hardly the best state in which to drive.
"The evidence is clear from work done internationally and from work which is beginning to become more available at a national level that driving under the influence of drugs has a negative impact."
The issue is, he accepts, "more complex than alcohol" because of the vast array of drugs, both legal and illegal, available and the wildly different affects they can have on the body.
The British Medical Association agrees that the issue is complex and says a simplifying solution remains elusive. It points out that developing reliable testing devices for drugs is an "onerous task".
"Unlike tests to detect impairment from alcohol that are based on clinical understanding of the metabolic rate and excretion from the body as well as dose-related neuropsychological impairment, comparable tests to detect drug levels in the body remain elusive. This is due to the differing effects on the body, and the length of time remaining in the body of the diverse assortment of drugs that are taken illegally and legally by drivers."
The complexity of the testing procedures explains why many people who would not consider driving home drunk from the pub have no problems with driving on drugs. They feel considerably more comfortable drug driving because the chances of being caught are significantly lessened.
There is no reliable roadside testing device currently being used in the Republic. At present, a person suspected of driving under the influence of drugs has to be arrested and brought to a Garda station to be tested.
The Garda has stepped up its enforcement in recent years and the number of samples being tested for drugs has risen dramatically but the testing programme is nowhere near as complete as it should be.
In the early 1990s the number of samples being sent for drug analysis in Ireland were in single figures. Last year it reached 750 with around half testing positive. This year is expected to top 1,000. The level of testing still falls a long distance short of the numbers being tested for excess alcohol - last year close to 15,000 people were tested for drink-driving in Ireland.
Research in the UK shows the numbers taking drugs and driving home is on the rise. There is also an increasing incidence of road traffic accidents where people have tested positive for drugs. The British Transport Research Laboratory has carried out tests to detect both alcohol and drug levels in people involved in fatal collisions between 1985 and 1987, and then again between 1996 and 1999.
The numbers testing positive for drugs at the end of the 1990s was six times greater than in the mid-1980s while in the same period, the incidence of medicinal drugs and alcohol remained very similar.
Case study Jack, (35), a drug driver
I have no problem driving after smoking a joint or snorting a line of cocaine. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to everyone as drugs can obviously have different effects on people and some would not be able to handle it after smoking a single joint, they just go to pieces.
One of the main causes of accidents is fatigue, and cocaine is certainly one drug that can combat that. Truck drivers routinely use pep pills when they have to cover long distances and there is not much difference between them and cocaine. Again it depends on the person though. You can get one guy who takes cocaine and suddenly believes himself to be the king of the road unwilling to stop even for red lights because they believe themselves to be invincible. Then you have others who may drive even more carefully because the drug has made them more alert and they are worried about being stopped by gardaí.
Cannabis can be a very single-minded drug and can heighten the senses, making people who are stoned more careful. I would never drive after drinking however. When you've been drinking you're far more likely to be in a crash. You're much more likely to be involved in an accident after drinking three pints than after smoking three joints or doing three lines of cocaine.
Smoking might dull your reactions. If I was involved in an accident after having a smoke then I would have to live with it. Every day you have to make a series of choices and sometimes you make the wrong ones.