CANDOR MEDIA RELEASE

Police Silence on Stoner Toll Costs Lives

New Zealands roads will remain as some of the Worlds most unsafe for so long as Police promote anarchy, through wilful neglect of the crux issue of drug driving - evidently behind the "out of control" drink driving they rail at.

If Police were in touch with developments they'd click that frequent oddball incidents like the loony driver who just purposely ran down pedestrians are a strong indication of the increasingly high presence of drug addled drivers.

NZ Police's message of "don't drink at all if driving" is fine, but not when it is stand alone. Such tactics are long recognised overseas as like playing Housie "while only covering the numbers on one line," according to Candor trust.

The target audience for any DUI message must be considered before the pitching.

16 East Coast students were last week banned from attending lessons due to drug use, and many with more time to waste will no doubt get behind the wheel more often - as they know Police aren't bothered.

Despite a whopping 40,000 random breath tests as part of the Police's weekend RAID Operation, the Police didn't come close to "Removing All Impaired Drivers", as their checkpoints simply aren't "fit for purpose" say Candor.

Checkpoints have become incompetent, prevalent drug intoxication isn't targeted, and so another tragic weekend has unfolded largely unchecked by the blunt tool of alcohol screening.

Four road users families had to identify their bodies, a man is struggling for life and many victims received horrific injuries. "It's quite probable some of the deceased even flew through the checkpoint charade while stoned".

Burgeoning injury rates and a sustained rise in fatal and injury crashes reflect dated slack policy, it's obvious this half baked impaired driving strategy needs urgent review.

“Of course drinkers aren't getting the message to keep under limits, because adverts don't explain how cannabis can interact and upset their beer counting".

The percent of fatal crashes involving alcohol has been relatively high by International standards for some time. So NZ needs to heed the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime, which this month encouraged backward Countries to drug test.

Police have all the scientific proof they need of THC being the gasoline to our raging road toll fire and drinkers getting caried away. Their own studies show pot use in dead drivers has doubled the last decade. P is behind forty odd deaths.

Modern road Police forces don't deal exclusively with alcohol whilst ignoring killer drugs, they recognise synergies and respond to new trends.

But the automation of Policing, with many members of the force now being inert cameras (which have eroded prior toll reductions), has dumbed the force down.

A recent local study has shown that pure bred drink drivers are the exception rather than the rule nowadays, for drug highs way more often than not have exacerbated the impairment of drinkers landing in our death toll.

Preliminary study results revealed that half of todays deceased drink drivers may well have indulged in cannabis, whereas only 14% of dead Kiwi drivers were solely fans of alcohol.

An equal percentage had used marijuana alone. The missing link has been found and it is cannabis. It's popularity and interaction with alcohol largely explains NZ's failure to hammer the alcohol related toll.

The social cost of drug driving crashes in hospital bills, lost productivity and so forth is in the vicinity of $520 million if sole drug users and alcohol “combiners” are considered.

So the total cost of drug and alcohol impaired driving, which Candor has based on Police estimates of harm, is likely well upwards of one billion dollars yearly.

Their higher involvement of risk drug takers in multi vehicle and multi fatality crashes than that of the purebred drink drivers makes them an ideal target.

The greatest risk for Kiwis and especially in the demographic which is causing our road toll increase (drinking twenty to thirties) is clearly from dope plus drink, as two NZ research studies have shown (Joyce K, John Bailey).

An Auckland study found that our pot smoking population has 10x their fair share of crashes, and smokers occupy a full fifty percent of Kiwi drivers tucked away in morgue chillers (2005).

Brault's study of thousands of drivers found that heavy cannabis use more than doubles the chance of being at fault in a crash, and the combination with any alcohol creates an infinite crash risk, equal to high blood alcohol levels.

Brault also found that below limit drivers are at a reduced risk for culpability in crashes than sobre drivers with an OR of 0.7.

"Queensland has the lower limit. But before drug testing they still had 28% of fatal crashes featuring alcohol, just as we do". The recent introduction of drug testing is expected to help reduce the drinking.

2-3 are dying here weekly from drug related crashes, which often also involved alcohol use too factor, while Government provides no publicity about this most major road risk of mixing substances,” say Candor.

The Malaysians lately found that addressing drug driving properly with a good drug testing regime reduced the entire target population's (motorcyclists) road toll by

Candor is concerned that Police seem fixated on lowering alcohol limits and issuing instant fines, when this would produce a 4% reduction in social costs at best.

"The Police and LTNZ need to stop lying to people - there truly is a drug problem in NZ. And the main harm caused by that is it's created a killing field on our roads."

This is a major threat to us all, and does not just affect the odd P cook who set out to blow themselves up, say Candor.

"Yet we see Police fumbling drug driving cases daily as they maintain a wall of silence". Even homicidal drug drivers them would be unlucky as heck to ever be appropriately charged.

One such stoned killer lately received a sentence of 150 hours of community service for what was essentially manslaughter of an innocent.

Drink driving is a crime, drug driving earns a cup of tea for the killer in effect.

Australia had to take action on the drug component when the growing prevalence in drivers caused Australia to drop from having the 3rd best ranking for deaths per Km travelled to 7th in the OECD in 2005.

The use of the Police advert budget to lobby for a reduced alcohol limit over the last few weeks is difficult to condone, as the same media time could have been used to talk pot and to elucidate its risks.

The inquiry called for by NZ Firsts Peter Brown must seek an urgent overhaul of the prevailing drink driving messages, as they are widely missing the mark and have done for five years at least.

Why is it not OK for Sportsman to shunt a ball around on drugs or for news presenters to deliver their lines wasted on P yet we don't mind them handling a vehicle?

The strong message in fact coming out from Police and the Courts is that it is perfectly Ok to drive and torture kids, families and grandparents while stoned.

Nineties style checkpoints are absolutely defunct, say Candor.

"We're getting what we ask for or perhaps what we accept, and that is a young child death toll related to DUI which has tripled in the last five years".

No Plunket car seat program can over ride the damage wrought by years of wrong messages, LTNZ misinformation campaigns about DUI and leaky checkpoints.

The straight Drink Drive Message is a mouldy oldy that inadvertently fuels the toll. It is plain wrong to deliver only half the goods required by the age groups most over represented in the toll, to understand their risks.

ENDS

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