CANNABIS DRIVERS ARE 'TWICE FATALITY RISK'

Driving stoned on cannabis doubles the risk of a fatal road crash, a
major new study has found.

The New Zealand police, who are pushing for tougher drug-driving
controls, say they are not surprised by the French study of 10,748
drivers published in the British Medical Journal yester day.

French researcher Bernard Laumon said all drivers underwent compulsory
tests for drugs and alcohol as part of the study, which ran from
October 2001 to 2003.

"Driving under the influence of cannabis almost doubles the risk of a
fatal road crash," Laumon said.

"The risk of being responsible for a fatal crash increased as the
blood concentration of cannabis increased."

The odds for being responsible increased from 1.9 to 3.1, according to
cannabis levels.

"However, its (cannabis) share in fatal crashes is significantly lower
than that associated with alcohol - 2.5 per cent compared with 29% for
alcohol."

Laumon said men were more likely to test positive for cannabis and
alcohol, as were younger drivers.

The French study follows New Zealand research this year by police and
Environmental Science and Research that showed that up to a third of
drivers killed on the roads and later tested had traces of cannabis in
their blood.

Inspector John Kelly said police were pushing for a law change that
would make it easier to deal with doped-out drivers.

At present police have to prove someone is incapable of driving, which
could require a doctor's report.

Kelly said it was hoped the law could be reworded to say a driver was
impaired by drugs - a much easier standard to prove.

British experts had recently trained New Zealand officers in using
"divided attention" tests, whereby a person is asked to do two or
three tasks at once to determine if they are driving drugged.

Kelly said police were also closely watching Australian attempts to
take mouth swabs of suspected drugged drivers for testing.

"We want to ensure the equipment and measures they are trying are up
to scratch," he said.

Sergeant John Robinson, of the Canterbury Highway Patrol, said
officers stopped drugged drivers regularly enough to be concerned, but
alcohol far outweighed these instances.

"People who smoke cannabis tend to stay at home a lot of the time.
That's probably a reflection on society and the people using it,"
Robinson said.

"Everybody from 15 up seems to be involved in alcohol."

Drugs were a contributing factor in about 5% of road deaths in 2003.