IT'S TIME TO FREE OUR ROADS FROM THE DANGERS OF DRUGGED DRIVING

Driving While Stoned On Drugs Is Going Out Of Fashion.

Just after Canada Day, police across the country will be empowered to
pull you over and question your clear-headedness. If you don't agree
to a roadside test, like walking a straight line, you may be required
to go to a police station and possibly have to donate a blood, urine
or saliva sample.

As soon as this new federal legislation came to light all the usual
suspects raised the familiar hullabaloo about privacy and civil rights.

There are kinks to be worked out, no doubt. But the bottom line here
is that anything that helps reduce our senseless road carnage should
be welcomed.

Remember it was not politicians, but citizen groups like MADD
(Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and SADD (originally Students Against
Driving Drunk, and now,

Students Against Destructive Decisions) who, through relentless
lobbying, changed the laws and public perception. Before these
pioneers, we all winked at the dimwit who downed fists full of
martinis after work and hopped in the Chevy to drive home.

Don't you recognize how much our attitudes have changed?

Now we need one more shift -- tackling the problem of motorists
driving under the influence of prescription drugs.

I don't have the figures to prove it, but I reckon at least half the
people driving while impaired by chemicals are doing so with the aid
of their friendly neighbourhood doctor, psychiatrist or pharmacist.

Prozac and Ritalin, for example, are among the world's most widely
prescribed "medicines." Then there's diazepam, amitriptyline,
chlorpromazine and a thousand psychotropic drugs found in the
alphabet soup of modern pharmacology.

Google any one of these modern miracle workers and you will find
pages of helpful descriptions and analyses.

In almost every case, in the tiniest print on the second or third
page, you will find this modest instruction: "Use caution when
driving or operating machinery."

This, of course, is after the customary warnings about possible
side-effects like nausea, headaches, dizziness, drowsiness and fainting.

But the last time your doctor prescribed a little blue or pink
"helper" to get you through the travails of life, did he or she
happen to mention that maybe driving under their influence wasn't the
best idea?

Does anyone remember the last time the B.C. Medical Association or
the Canadian Psychiatric Association ran a public-information forum
on the problems and responsibilities involved in taking powerful
mood-changing chemicals and driving the Ford Exploder? Probably not.

The death and destruction on our roads is due to speed, alcohol,
illegal drugs -- and both prescription and over-the-counter medicines.

It is time for each of us, as responsible patients, consumers and
citizens, to be aware of the dangers involved. And it is time for the
professionals to show the same care and concern.