Opinion: Drugged drivers a danger to others

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Over the course of my lifetime societal attitudes to drink driving have completely changed.

While 40 years ago having a few drinks at the pub then driving home may have been the norm, today it's frowned upon, to say the least. In extreme cases we hear of people wrestling keys away from drunks, such is the awareness of the carnage a drunk can cause on the roads.

A large part of this has been the TV advertising - "If you drink and drive you're a bloody idiot" - along with police blitzes and stern sentences.

More recently we have seen the ads with a milkshake-drinking stoned man as well as three young kids imitating how their dad drives while stoned. Efforts are being made to educate the coming generations that not just drink driving, but drug driving too, is a problem.

Yet many people still think drug driving is not an issue. New Zealand research conducted in 2009 found that people who drive under the influence of drugs think it's a relatively safe thing to do.

The New Zealand Drug Foundation study found half of all party drug users and 58 per cent of cannabis drivers thought being high or stoned made no difference to their driving ability.

I have heard cannabis users argue they are safer when stoned - apparently they are more chilled and drive slower. But - as the TV ad attempts to show - their reactions are also slower.

Today, we report how just seven people were caught and charged with drugged driving in Rotorua in 2016. To me, that doesn't seem like a lot. Given the drug use in the city, I would bet my house there were more people than that driving on our roads stoned or high last year.

The problem is, unlike alcohol-impaired drivers, it may not always be obvious who they are - which does make it tricky for police.

Technology is being developed to help with that and, in my view, it can't come soon enough. Let's get drugged drivers off our roads because, despite what they may think, they are a danger to all other road users.