Drugs warning system set to aid motorists

A CLEAR and simple warning system for drugs that can impair driving ability is to be developed by the State’s pharmacy regulator.

A sticker placed on the drug packaging at the point of supply will warn motorists to avoid driving while taking the medication.

The sticker will be created by the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI) in a bid to encourage safer driving.

As a first step, the PSI, together with the Road Safety Authority (RSA), have developed an information leaflet on medicines that can affect driving.

The RSA had expressed concern to the IPU about the role of legal drugs in impairing driving ability.

The leaflet, which will be launched at the PSI’s third national pharmacy summit in Dublin today, is to ensure that drivers and pharmacists are better informed.

PSI president Dr Bernard Leddy said the society also intended educating health-care professionals on their responsibilities.

“Pharmacists are the healthcare professionals at the point of supply of medicines, in effect, the last qualified input before a person takes a prescribed or a non-prescription medicine,” he pointed out.

He said the issue of medicines and driving had become an area of great concern from a safety perspective and it was becoming more apparent that pharmacists had a growing part to play.

“People who drive professionally or otherwise must be made aware that their medication may affect mental alertness, co-ordination and, therefore, driving skills. They must understand how to manage this,” he said.

Dr Leddy said the IPU also wanted to create a sticker to flag medicines that reduce the ability to drive safely.

It is an offence to drive or attempt to drive a vehicle while taking drugs that impair the ability to drive safely.

Gardaí confirmed that just 218 drivers tested positive for drug driving last year. There were 18,821 drink-driving incidents during the same period.

The RSA said the absence of one conclusive roadside test was to blame for a failure to undertake rigorous drugs testing, even when the extent of the problem was widely acknowledged.

Unlike alcohol testing, however, there was no hand-held device available to detect drugs in motorists. Instead, blood or urine samples are required at a Garda station, placing responsibility on gardaí to recognise the symptoms of driving impairment due to drugs.

Gardaí pointed out, however, that the intoxicated-driving incidents included alcohol or drugs, or a combination of both.

The leaflet includes a list of some medicines that may impair driver ability and warns that the effects of medicines can be increased if combined with alcohol, or other drugs or medicines.

It explains what types of medicines could affect driving, but stresses that the list is not complete and advises people always to check with a pharmacist or GP about a medicine and its potential risk.