A lack of education on drug driving has made it more socially acceptable than drink driving, a chief inspector has said.
Chief Inspector Michael Parker, of Greater Manchester Police, was speaking to the Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) Bee Network committee about drug driving in the region when he made the remarks.
Ch Insp Parker said: “Drink driving is now socially unacceptable. It took a long period of education to get to that.”
But he added that the same was not true for drug driving.
“We’ve not had that period of education for drug driving yet,” he said. “You’ll stop people in the streets and ask them if they’ve had a drink and they’ll say, ‘No I don’t do anything like that – I just smoke weed’.”
The inspector explained that cannabis can stay in a person’s system and affect their ability to drive for seven days.
He said the offence now exceeded drink driving “probably by a three to one basis”.
His estimate has been backed up by recent police figures on arrests in the Manchester region.
Police data has revealed that 5,079 people were arrested for driving over the limit in 2022.
A total of 50% of those were for drug-driving, 40% were alcohol-related and 10% were no test provided, the BBC reported.
December saw the highest figure, with 536 arrests taking place over the month, a 53% rise on the number for January.
It follows the launch of a Christmas edition of the ‘Your Car Can’t Say No’ campaign headed up by TfGM to raise awareness on the dangers of drug and drink driving, both to drivers and pedestrians.
The campaign ads show people leaving their office party or heading to Christmas dinner after consuming drink and drugs – with disastrous results.
A total of 20% of all Greater Manchester fatal collisions were reported as involving drink/drug driving in 2018 – the most recent data available – according to the transport body.
TfGM’s Head of Highways Peter Boulton. said: “This [subject] is even more poignant over Christmas when people come together with their friends and families.
“Don’t be the reason someone’s loved one is not around the table on Christmas Day.”
Image Credit: West Midlands Police via Wikimedia Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
