DRIVE STRAIGHT

The statistics from Friday night's road check in the Seymour area of
North Vancouver are an encouraging start to the annual holiday
season's CounterAttack campaign.

While eight roadside suspensions were handed out, only one driver was
charged with impaired driving.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse in a study of 1,500 drivers
this year found more evidence of drug use than alcohol use in
nighttime drivers.

It would seem that relentless education and prosecution has succeeded
in reducing the numbers of drinking drivers on our roads. But driving
under the influence of drugs continues unabated.

That is alarming.

While we believe the continued criminality of marijuana is a costly
mistake, we have no sympathy for drivers found to be under its influence.

Just as in the cases of those who drive drunk, potheads and casual
users alike put other innocent lives at risk when they get behind the
wheel of a car. We would favour repeat offenders losing their car as
well as their driving privileges.

Our provincial government has yet to mandate the use of breath-sample
ignition locks on the vehicles of repeat drunk drivers. When it does,
and surely it must, perhaps the technology can be extended to include
pot breath.

Meanwhile, the rest of us can do our part by ensuring that none of our
friends drive in any form of altered state. If they are not in a
position to make good choices, we must make that choice for them.