DRIVING INTO DANGER - LEGALLY

Over-the-counter drug warning

Most Canadians know it's dangerous to take drugs and drive, yet many still
do.

A recent study by the Ottawa-based Traffic Injury Research Foundation
suggests that an estimated 3.7 million Canadians admit to driving after
taking some type of potentially impairing drug in the past year.

But many of them aren't taking illegal drugs -- they're taking
over-the-counter and prescription medications, which can impair their
ability to drive safely, according to the study.

Respondents believed the use of illegal drugs was the second most serious
road safety issue after drinking and driving.

However, fewer were concerned about driving under the influence of legal
drugs, even though it's a more common practice.

The study, based on telephone surveys with drivers from 1,214 households
across Canada last April, found that 50.3% had taken legal drugs while 5.1%
used marijuana and 3.8% consumed other illegal drugs.

"People don't know the potential legal drugs have to impair their ability to
drive," said Doug Beirness, one of the study's three authors.

"Because they're unaware, it's something they do often, even though package
inserts state not to drive or operate machinery while taking the medicine."

Sherrie Hertz, drug information pharmacist from the Ontario Pharmacists
Association, said some medicine causes drowsiness and impairment and the
warnings are on the products.

"We encourage people to look at them and follow them. If they have
questions, they should ask their pharmacists."

People's abilities behind the wheel are affected when they don't take
medication the right way, said Ethel Archard, the Canada Safety Council's
manager of communications.

EDUCATE PEOPLE

"Driving after taking legal drugs is as big an issue, if not bigger, than
driving with illegal drugs, so it makes sense to deal with people and
educate them."

Many of the council's safety programs are focused on seniors because they're
the group that takes the most medication.

However, not everyone sees the results as cause for alarm.

Andrew Murie, executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in
Toronto, said the study is flawed because it fails to differentiate between
drugs that impair and drugs that don't.

"There's no sense of how high the numbers are and whether the legal drugs
impaired driving. If there wasn't impairment or harm, so what if all these
people did it?"