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Sarah Boyack and Iain Gray Back Police Initiative Targeting Drug Drivers
25/06/2001
Transport Minister Sarah Boyack and Deputy Justice Minister Iain Gray joined forces with the police today to launch a new initiative to combat drug driving.
The Transport Minister also announced additional funding of £180,000 to the Scottish Road Safety Campaign to produce a TV advert targeting young drivers on the dangers of drug driving.
The message of the new drug driving initiative launched today by ACPOS (The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland) is that driving under the influence of illegal drugs is equally unacceptable and dangerous as drink driving.
The aim is to raise awareness of drug driving issues following research findings that 18 per cent of people killed in road accidents had used illegal drugs and that knowledge of the law on drug driving was very poor.
As part of the campaign all eight police forces in Scotland have been trained to detect drug-impaired driving using voluntary physical co-ordination tests, as from 1 June 2001.
Police have also been working with Crew 2000 who have distributed a new drug driving leaflet. The leaflet outlines information about the law on drug driving and penalties faced by offenders and was distributed to clubgoers in towns across Scotland in the past few days, as part of the Drug Driving Awareness Weekend.
Ms Boyack said:
"The Scottish Executive and Scottish police forces need to crackdown on blasé attitudes towards driving after taking cocaine or cannabis for example. The additional resources I'm announcing today will enable the Scottish Road Safety Campaign to look at new ways to make young people more aware of the effects of driving under the influence of illegal drugs. Too many people are willing to dice with death behind the wheel of their car. Today's launch is a positive step in raising awareness and contributing to reducing fatal and serious accidents".
Commenting on the campaign Mr Gray said:
"The research carried out by the Scottish Executive has given us great insight into the extent of the drug driving problem and clearly points to the need for action. We have long recognised the dangers of drink driving. Drug driving can be just as dangerous and we must get the message through to large numbers of people that it too is socially unacceptable. This campaign will address these problems and will increase public awareness of driving with drugs".
BACKGROUND
- The main findings of research on recreational drug use and driving, recently published by the Scottish Executive, were: drug driving is prevalent among 20 to 24 year old age group; nearly 10 per cent of drivers aged 17 to 39 have driven under the influence of illegal drugs; cannabis is the most common drug to have been used by drug drivers.
- Drug Driving Awareness Weekend ran from Friday 22 June to Sunday 24 June 2001. Enforcement of the new detection methods will begin on 29 June.
- The initiative is part of a wider Safer Scotland 'Know the Score' campaign, launched earlier this year, in which police forces and other agencies are uniting to take concerted action against drug trafficking and drug misuse in Scotland
- The aim of voluntary physical co-ordination tests is to use them as a device to assess whether an individual's consciousness is impaired by the influence of drugs.
- The Scottish Executive provides funds to the Scottish Road Safety Campaign for the production of road safety education resources and publicity initiatives.
In September the Scottish Executive announced a £100 million package of expenditure on drug misuse, covering the three years from April 2001 until March 2004. The package funds the continued implementation of the Scottish Executive's comprehensive and multi-agency drugs strategy Tackling Drugs in Scotland: Action in Partnership published in March 1999.
News Release: SE1527/2001
25 Jun 2001