More Northland drivers are being caught driving while under the influence of drugs, a top local cop says.
Since the introduction of anti-drugged-driving legislation came into effect in November 2009, 583 people have been charged with the offence nationally - 67 from Northland.
Relieving Northland police Senior Sergeant Lance Goulsbro said the number of people identified driving under the influence of drugs was only increasing as police became more familiar with the legislation and what to look out for.
"The legislation is relatively recent, compared to drink-driving laws which have been around forever.
"Northland-wide, we know that we are picking up more and that staff are more aware."
Unlike drink-drivers, there was no typical time of the day or week when people were caught driving impaired by drugs, Mr Goulsbro said.
"It's not like alcohol where people predominantly drink in the afternoon and evenings and you get more apprehensions at night-time than during the day."
Cannabis and methamphetamine were the most common drugs picked up, however there was no typical offender, Mr Goulsbro said.
"Different people across society use different types of drugs."
AA spokesman Dylan Thomsen said drugged-driving was the "elephant in the room" when it came to road safety.
"This is under-recognised as an issue on the roads. We have a huge focus on drink-driving - and rightly so - but the evidence indicates that we have an equally large problem with people driving under the influence of drugs and we're not doing enough right now to target those people and keep them off the roads."
Mr Thomsen said more people were not being picked up for drugged-driving because they had to be "incredibly out of it" for an officer to suspect they were under the influence, and specially trained officers had to be present to carry out the test.
The AA wanted to see more random drug testing with saliva testing machines - currently used in every state in Australia.
However, the Government is waiting for saliva testing technology to improve before introducing it.