RAC urges coding of over-the-counter drugs

By: Drivers.com staff
Date: 2000-01-28

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The U.K.'s Royal Automobile Club is calling for a "traffic light" warning system on all over-the-counter drugs. The system would employ green, amber, and red colour coding.

The message conveyed by the colours:

• Green-safe or unlikely to produce an effect. OK to drive.
• Amber-likely to produce minor effects. Check instructions. May be advisable not to drive.
• Red-likely to produce severe adverse effects or presumed to be potentially dangerous. Do not drive.

In addition, the RAC wants to combine the system with a public awareness campaign warning motorists of the dangers of driving while using illicit drugs and prescription drugs.

Driving while on drugs is as big a problem as driving under the influence of drink, the motoring organization says. It quotes researchers at the University of Dundee as saying that if people taking tranquilizers did not drive, there would be 110 fewer road deaths and 1,600 fewer accidents in Britain each year.

Legally-prescribed drugs are only part of the problem, however. A survey by the RAC's Report on Motoring shows that over a 12 month period: 800,000 people have been in a car where the driver was under the influence of cannabis; 280,000 where the driver was under the influence of speed; and 140,000 people where the driver was under the influence of ecstasy, cocaine or heroin.

Women, apparently, are much less likely to drive under the influence of drink or illicit drugs.

Commenting on the issue, RAC Group managing director Graeme Potts said: "It is extremely worrying that the use of banned drugs and driving has grown so rapidly. A campaign is needed to stop this practice becoming entrenched. The vast majority of drivers now view drink driving as a very serious offence. This attitude must extend to drug driving."

RAC Foundation executive director Edmund King said: "The government has spent millions on effective campaigns addressing the problems of drink driving and now is the time to highlight the dangers of drugs and driving. It is alarming that drug driving is overtaking drink driving as the biggest danger on our roads."

In the meantime, the Guardian newspaper is reporting that 16 people have been chosen by the government to test drive cars legally after smoking cannabis as part of a research project into the impact of drug taking on motorists.

Names and backgrounds of the test subjects are being kept secret by the transport research laboratory at Bracknell, Berkshire, which is carrying out the investigation. The laboratory would not say how the 16 had been chosen, but they are being given cannabis, told to drive immediately afterwards, and then tested on their reactions.

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