POSTER CAMPAIGN TO TACKLE DANGER OF DRUGS AND DRIVING

Ministers are planning to launch a television and poster campaign in
an attempt to cut the rising number of road deaths caused by drivers
under the influence of drugs.

One poster shows the gravestone of a 19-year-old youth, with the
message: "His last tablet. Never ever drive on drugs". Another shows a
chalk outline of an accident victim's body on the road, pools of
blood, and the slogan: "Not the hit he was hoping for".

The campaign, which will be tested in Northern Ireland, comes amid
growing evidence that increasing numbers of young people in particular
are driving after consuming a cocktail of alcohol, Ecstasy and other
drugs including cannabis and amphetamines. Official figures show that
the number of drivers and passengers killed in road accidents after
taking drugs has risen from three per cent of the total to 18 per cent
in the past 15 years.

The RAC says that more than 750,000 passengers in the past year have
been driven by somebody under the influence of drugs. Lord Whitty, the
road safety minister, discussed the campaign with motoring
organisations at the Labour party conference last week. Edmund King,
the executive director of the RAC Foundation, said: "He seemed very
positive. Drugs-driving is a huge problem and we urgently need a
national campaign to make people aware of the dangers."

The Belfast office of advertising agency McCann-Erickson has drawn up
the draft campaign at the request of the Environment Department in
Northern Ireland. A recent study by Queen's University, Belfast,
Ecstasy Use in Northern Ireland, had shown that, while drink-driving
was taboo for most young people aged between 17 and 24, taking drugs
and driving was not.

David Lyle, the chief executive of McCann-Erickson, said: "We have
come across young people who think that, because alcohol is a
depressant, it is good to take drugs such as Ecstasy or speed to
counter the effect of the few beers or vodkas they have early on in
the evening A lot of them take cannabis after that to help the
'chill-down' process at the end of their night out." The campaign was
also necessary for parents, he said. "They are astonishingly ignorant
about how widespread and dangerous drugs-driving is."

There is still some resistance to the idea of a national
anti-drugs-driving campaign. Opponents fear that, by attacking
drugs-driving specifically, the Government could be sending out a
message that it is condoning illegal drug-taking in general, despite
the strong anti-drugs message from Tony Blair in a speech to the
Labour party conference last week. Supporters argue that drugs-driving
should be treated as a separate issue, as with drink-driving campaigns.

Alan Beith, the home affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats,
said: "The Government must act now to help make drug-driving as
socially unacceptable as drink-driving."

A spokesman for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the
Regions said: "We are committed to finding the best way of getting the
message through to drivers. A national awareness campaign may well
have an important role to play in that."