CANNABIS-ALCOHOL MIX DEADLY FOR SOME DRIVERS

WELLINGTON -- Drivers who use cannabis appear to be as safe as sober
motorists - but become deadly when the drug is mixed with large
amounts of alcohol, a road researcher says.

Police Minister George Hawkins confirmed police intended studying
cannabis use in relation to road accidents, using blood samples from
4800 drink-driving suspects.

Wellington-based road researcher John Bailey said an earlier study
into fatal road accidents found that one in five drivers who died on
the roads in a two-year period had been smoking cannabis in the hours
before they crashed.

But he said cannabis on its own did not appear to be a problem; it was
when the drug was mixed with alcohol that drivers became dangerous.

"In our fatal accident study we found there's not really much of a
problem with people who just smoke cannabis, who haven't drunk alcohol
as well.

"That small group ... appeared to actually be safer than those people
who had no drugs at all on board, neither cannabis or alcohol."

The biggest concern was people who had a high blood alcohol level,
which in the fatal accident study corresponded to about 25 glasses of
beer, and who also smoked cannabis.

Mr Hawkins said the aim of the study was to show how widely cannabis
was being used by drivers, and how much of a problem that was.

Dr Bailey said he had been talking to police and the Land Transport
Safety Authority about follow up research to the fatal accident study.

Among the propositions which could arise from the new research was
roadside testing for cannabis, while its findings would be useful in
the debate over whether cannabis should be decriminalised, an issue
due to be considered by Parliament toward the end of the year.