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Nearly 8,000 British Drivers Arrested for Drug Driving in the Last Year

According to figures obtained by the BBC, no less than 7,796 British drivers were arrested between March 2015 and April 2016 for drugged driving. Anyway you look at it, this is a rather worrying trend.
Cocaine 1 photo
Photo: the3cats via pixabay.com
More worryingly, the statistics come from 35 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales. In other words, more than 7,796 motorists were arrested in the United Kingdom in the said time span for drug driving.

A former drug driver declared for the 5 live Breakfast program on BBC Radio 5 that driving under the influence of drugs isn’t the coolest thing to do. The man recalls blurred vision (“not watching for other people on the road”). The 31-year-old man featured in the video below spent the best part of 10 years abusing cocaine and other high-risk drugs. “I'm incredibly lucky to have never been involved in an accident,” he added in a moment of sincerity.

As a brief reminder, the drugs and driving law in the United Kingdom includes 17 prescription and illegal drugs. In England and Wales, it’s illegal to drive if you’re under the influence of diazepam, morphine, opiate, opioid-based drugs , methadone, and so forth. 
More to the point, it is illegal to do so if the police find that you have over the specified limits of a prescribed drug in your blood. You can only drive with prescription drugs in your bloodstream if you’ve been prescribed them and followed advice on how to take them.

The drug driving law doesn’t cover Scotland and Northern Ireland, but then again, you could still be arrested if the police deems you’re not fit to drive. The penalties for drug driving in England and Wales are very severe: a minimum one-year driving ban, an “unlimited fine” and up to six months in prison.

Oh, and another thing: the British police can stop a driver and use a drugalyser to screen for marijuana and cocaine. One final word of warning: if you get caught, you car insurance will increase significantly and your driving license will show you’ve been convicted for drug driving for 11 years.

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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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