Drug Driving – Increasing concern

1 March 2021

A new report from PACTS Drug Driving – The tip of an iceberg? shows that, despite considerable advances in the past five years, the UK Department for Transport still lacks answers to vital questions on the level of drug driving and its impact on road casualties. Those cases detected may be only the tip of an iceberg. The report shows that enforcement is increasing but very unevenly. While some police forces are now prosecuting more drivers for drug driving than drink, other forces are limiting patrols to a single test and drivers appear to be getting away with it.

Using casualty, survey, conviction, and re-offending data, along with academic literature, the report presents a profile of drug drivers in the UK.  The distribution of drug prevalence for illicit drugs is broadly similar across Europe for those involved in road accidents,