A study conducted by TRL for the DETR on the incidence of alcohol and drugs in road accident fatalities showed a six-fold increase in illicit drug consumption by fatally injured drivers between 1987 and 1997. Reliable information on the extent of drug driving is difficult to obtain. This possibility of using drug-screening devices at the roadside has been investigated. Progress towards developing a reliable, robust and non-invasive device for roadside drug detection has been slow. Several police forces, notably Strathclyde, have undertaken initiatives to train police in drug recognition at the roadside. Drug Recognition Training (DRT) and Field Impairment Testing (FIT) have been evaluated. This paper was presented at the British Association of Science, 3 September 2001, Glasgow, UK.
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