Daily Matters: We have to step up to end drug driving scourge

LOCAL police are at their wits end, and rightly so.

No matter how much they hope and pray people begin getting the message that illicit drugs ruins lives, they continue to catch more and more people driving around our streets impaired by drugs in their system.

How much more should we, as a community, tolerate this scourge in our society?

Insanely, some people obviously believe it is socially acceptable to ingest illegal substances in order to get a high, at the same time not only risking their own health, but that of others.

Police would no doubt have been hoping last weekend’s unannounced operation targeting traffic offences, but specifically impaired drivers, failed to return the results they would have been hoping for.

In fact, police said they were “bitterly disappointed” that one in every 13 motorists intercepted were either drug or alcohol impaired.

Just consider, for a moment, what you did and where you drove last weekend.

Based on the data acquired by police, every thirteenth vehicle you passed during your travels had a driver whose impairment by either drugs or alcohol had the potential to threaten your safety and anyone else in the car with you.

Your husband or wife, your kids, babies.

While only three were caught over the prescribed concentration of alcohol, 23 were equally impaired with drugs in their system.

That data should shock the hell out of the majority of Sunraysia motorists doing the right thing.

While there has fortunately been a steady reduction in the number of alcohol-impaired drivers detected on local roads, the number of drug-drivers, ashamedly, continues a steady climb.

The impairments related to drink driving should be well known by now, but drug drivers face a similar, if not greater, threat on our roads.

According to the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, even low doses of drugs can significantly reduce driving skills.

Cannabis, for example, can make motorists drive too slowly, find it difficult to stay awake, or to stay within designated lanes while driving.

Amphetamines and ecstasy can lead to speeding or erratic driving as well as reduced vision and increased risk-taking behind the wheel.

Every thirteenth vehicle!

Victorian road deaths are a staggering 40 per cent up on the same time last year and most of those have happened in rural settings.

The number of deaths on the state’s roads for those aged between 16 and 29 has risen by 190 per cent, and 14 people have already died on roads in the Mildura police region this year.

Fourteen people with mothers and fathers, sons and daughters who will forever be asking the question “why”.

It is much the same question police ask when such startling results of their traffic operations reach command.

Removing impaired drivers from the roads is one strategy, halting the issue before it happens is another.

Police can do only so much with the resources they have.

Time and time again, they have said this is a community-wide issue.

It’s time the community took ownership of the problem and shared that responsibility.