Editorial: Keep catching drugged drivers

We've always known they're out there but still, figures showing how many drugged drivers have been caught on our country's roads in the past couple of years are enough to shock at least some of us.

And more stoned drivers are being caught in Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty than anywhere else in the country. That is not a top spot our region needs or wants to occupy.

According to figures we published this week, 116 people have been caught driving under the influence of drugs between November 2009 and the end of February this year in the Bay. The next highest rate was in Waitemata where 70 were caught. Nationwide, police have caught 586 drugged drivers since the introduction of laws enabling them to test for it.

The most common drug for which drivers tested positive was cannabis with others found to be under the influence of the likes of methamphetamine, opiates and sedatives.

As they often do when rates in their regions are higher than elsewhere, local police say the Bay's high arrest rate reflects the focus they have placed on this type of offending, but it surely also indicates that the issue is worse here than elsewhere. Police in other areas are surely also doing all they can to get these menaces off our roads.

Be that as it may, the rest of us are more than happy to see the police catching as many drugged drivers as possible. Like drunk drivers, drugged drivers are causing totally preventable, unnecessary crashes involving injury and death.

It seems ludicrous that just a few years ago all police could do if they suspected a driver was under the influence of drugs was take away their keys and make them walk. There were no consequences under our then criminal justice system.

We want police to keep catching them, to keep them off our roads as much as possible - and we expect the courts to be as tough on them as possible.

Given our record with drink-driving, however, how many of these idiots will get the message and see the error of their ways is something we can't predict or rely on.