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22 Comments
We need a massive overhaul of sentencing for driving offences, starting from driving whilst disqualified being a mandatory 5 year prison sentence with the full 5 years served followed by a lifetime ban from driving, irrespective of the initial disqualification period or the amount of time left on it.
Killing someone in a vehicle, whether it is through careless or dangerous driving should be a mandatory lifetime ban and 10 years imprisonment minimum.
Needs to be twinned to an impairment test. The severity of failing the impairment test should be more damning evidence than a random number on a vaguely accurate machine. “Oh no 0.016 ketamines” vs “this guy cant walk and can’t remember his own name”
Driving standards in the UK are atrocious as it is let alone adding drugs to the mix. So many aggressive and dangerous drivers and dangerous vehicles that shouldn’t even be on the road.
The sentences need to be harsher and we need police actually patrolling and performing regular traffic stops.
Our police especially has been reduced to a purely reactionary force instead of proactive like they used to be.
They want to make the law harsher?
I agree that cannabis users shouldn’t get behind the wheel when stoned but if you’ve had a smoke the night before and you’re tested the next day, you fail. I think this is stupid as I don’t think people are any more impaired than someone on prescriptions drugs (probably less so). It’s no wonder the figures are climbing when they drugs wipe all the young people regardless of them being in an accident or not.
Drivers trying to use our roads without following the rules.
I feel like it’s a controversial opinion and for the record driving whilst actually impaired by drugs is incredibly stupid/dangerous and should be punished the same as drink driving.
But, the bar for drugs (say cannabis) is so low you can get done for drug driving a couple of days later. Same with cocaine as I understand it. Arguably any impairment or effect has long since worn off but because a red line shows up on a roadside test and because you have some traces ‘in your system’ then you’re a heinous drug driver when you’re not actually impaired, you just had a joint on Saturday evening and it’s now Sunday afternoon or even Monday morning. They either need to increase the limits or include an impairment test. Very difficult to do as it will be spun in the media (esp right wing press) as Labour being “soft on drug drivers” or some other such rubbish.
It’s always baffled me why people who kill when driving aren’t done for manslaughter at the very least. People who drunk and drive or take drugs and drive should be charged with murder. They know they can kill someone but drive anyway.
I heard this interview. No point increasing penalties if you don’t detect the crime, same old rubbish.
He also wants to increase the amounts of drugs people can take before driving – has he got evidence of non impairment?. Is he not aware that driving if impaired by alcohol is always illegal? It’s not true you can drink alcohol in moderation and drive, but it becomes a strict liability at 35 breath whether impaired or not – the minister needs to listen to some experts.
Lack of sleep is a far greater risk factor, say, than having a joint 3 days ago.
Can they test for how sleep deprived you are? No.
Yet someone who has a medical cannabis prescription can legally drive!!!
These stats are shocking but not surprising. The fact that drug driving arrests now outpace drink driving in some areas, like Merseyside, shows how widespread the issue has become. What’s frustrating is the lack of nuance in these laws—there’s no distinction between impairment and simply having trace amounts of a substance in your system. For example, THC can stay detectable for hours or even days after use, long after any intoxicating effects have worn off.
While I fully support cracking down on impaired driving to save lives (like the tragic cases mentioned in the article), we also need to ensure the laws are fair and based on science. Zero-tolerance policies for substances like cannabis might criminalize responsible users who aren’t actually a danger on the road. If the government is reviewing these laws, I hope they focus on impairment rather than just presence of substances. Otherwise, we risk punishing people who aren’t even impaired while ignoring the real dangers.
I’d kill for a DfT that isn’t purely focused on banning and cancelling things
Swab tests check what’s in yr system, urine tests for historical usage, which to me is unfair.
What’s telling about it all to me is I have a cannabis prescription, I dont drive if I’m impaired yet the law allows me to get behind the wheel if I’m not impaired but my bloods are well over the prescribed limit (they always will be)
If there’s dispensation to say this person can drive whilst their bloods show metabolites above the limits then how can that same law suggest people are too dangerous to drive with it in their system? It seems very contradictory really
To me this itself says that the drugs when not impairing someone aren’t actually an issue.
It’s becoming clear we need a test/device to actually determine whether you’re impaired or not.
Pretty sure even with two glasses of wine in me (I never drink and drive FWIW, not even a single glass), I have better reaction times than Beatrice age 94. People are on all sorts of medications, and age/diseases also affect your ability to drive.
Without quoting someone’s PhD thesis if a drug sticks around in your system it is by definition impairing your abilities. Why should cannabis and it’s relations be subject to less restrictions than alcohol?
On the flip side if you drive on ecstasy I imagine you’ll be a way better driver and more considerate. Someone cut you up? Give them a cuddle and find out where they grew up. Someone pull out on a roundabout? Get them a water and have a happy cry together.
The police are doing what they can with the tools they have at their disposal to try and stop people killing other people and themselves, it’s just a shame that as a group in general drivers can’t police themselves, we can’t be trusted to do that and as part of a group some of us let the side down, so I hope they keep at it.
If you smoke daily look into a Cannacard. Very easy to be privately prescribed these days. Our drug laws are archaic. Even the USA is more progressive at this point.
Alcohol kills millions of people.
As for ketamine and cocaine that’s on you. Completely different ball game.
This all comes back to government needing to change the law or be clear to CPS who they want prosecuted for drug offences. If I’m being quite frankly though, I think you’re pretty silly to get behind the wheel so soon after doing illegal drugs and not waiting for it cleanse out your system.
I get random D&A testing and if I was positive for anything my career would be toast no matter how little it was. I don’t go near anything and have heard and seen plenty people who have gone from good money jobs to squat because they did drugs when they know it’s going to permanently kill their career (some just don’t care or are addicted and refuse to seek help).
Umm..whilst I don’t normally have an issue with LBC but I can’t see how and where they got figures of 1624 deaths in 2024 as a result of drug driving when the KSI rate in the UK was less at just over 1607 over the same period.
Now, on the flipside. DD and DR offences should be more draconian, some 20,000 people a year apparently are not getting the message
I also think the limits should be lowered to 0.5 in line with Scotland and most of Europe, 0.8 being the highest anywhere
55 a day shame on you ******* some of us want to live, roads are dangerous enough without you **** adding to it.