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Call for specific drug-driving offence

24/02/2010

Road safety charity Brake has renewed its call for a specific charge of drug-driving in the wake of the "shockingly low" conviction rates revealed in new crime figures.

It is demanding that the Government makes it an offence to drive with illegal drugs in the body, allowing the police and the justice system to effectively target the "scourge" of drug-driving - something it says may now be as significant as alcohol-related motoring offences.

According to the statistics from the Ministry of Justice there were 1,644 convictions in England and Wales for drug-related motoring offences in 2008. This compares to 71,449 for drink-related offences - the vast majority of which relate to the specific charge of 'driving with alcohol in the blood above the prescribed limit', for which there is no drug-driving equivalent.

Although drug-driving is illegal, there are no prescribed 'limits', meaning the prosecution must prove that a motorist was 'unfit to drive' through the use of drugs. Brake argues that this is more difficult than being able to refer to the "simple statistical fact" that a test would offer.

It says that the Government must approve kits that would enable police to carry out roadside tests on motorists suspected of drug-driving.

Speaking ahead of next month's report from Sir Peter North on drink- and drug-driving, Brake chief executive Mary Williams said that she hoped it would "recommend the substantial overhaul of drug-driving legislation and enforcement".

"Then it will be for the Government to act swiftly to remedy the legal loophole which allows drug-drivers to continue to put all our lives at risk without fear of justice," she added.

Last August saw the launch of a high-profile campaign to make people more aware of the dangers and penalties of drug-driving. At the time, Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said that he was considering changes to the law on drink- and drug-driving.

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