Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 8:

In page 7, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following:“(1C) Subsection (1A) does not apply to a person in respect of a drug specified at reference number 6 in column (1) of the Schedule where the person is the holder of a medical exemption certificate which indicates that at the time at which that drug was found to be present in his or her blood it had been lawfully prescribed for him or her and which is signed by the doctor who prescribed it.

(1D) The Minister will, upon commencement of this Act, in conjunction with the Garda Commissioner, make regulations specifying the minimum Levels (units in whole blood) in respect of each drug specified at reference number 6 in column (1) of the Schedule.”.”.

I welcome the proposal as it is long overdue. Unfortunately, driver impairment through alcohol and drug misuse is still a large contributory factor in road traffic accidents. The list, however, of banned substances in sections 4(1A) and 5(1A) is very limited in that it only lists the main illegal drugs, namely, cannabis, cocaine and heroin. Based on current national and international prevalence data, the drugs to be targeted initially in this Bill are cannabis, cocaine, opiates and benzodiazepines. However, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, MBRS, study, on whose recommendations this Bill is based, is heavily reliant on a 16 year-old study, Driving Under the Influence of Drugs in Ireland, Results of a Nationwide Survey 2000-2001. In particular, the study indicated that cannabis and benzodiazepines were the most prevalent drug in driving under the influence of drug cases, followed by opiates, methadone and cocaine.

While it might be the case that these drugs remain the most widely used in Ireland, it is also the case that over the past 16 years, drug use in Ireland, as elsewhere, has evolved significantly. In particular, the use of psychoactive drugs has become more prevalent in that period. According to the EU drug markets report 2016, Irish people are the largest users of illegal psychoactive drugs in the EU. According to the survey of people aged 15 to 24 on the highest levels of use in the past year, Ireland was at 9%, Spain and France were at 8% and Slovenia was at 7%.

Eight psychoactive substances are not included in the Schedule of banned substances in this Bill. Another limitation of the Bill is that it ignores the possible misuse of legal prescription drugs which can be worse than alcohol for impaired driving. In particular, the misuse of prescription benzodiazepines, such as Valium and Xanax, has increased significantly over the past 15 years with numbers of people seeking treatment for addiction to benzodiazepines has more than doubled since 2009, according to the Health Service Executive. While benzodiazepines are often prescribed as sedatives for use in the treatment of anxiety disorders and insomnia, they have become increasingly common as recreational drugs. Recent statistics show that benzodiazepines were the main problem drug of 547 people who sought treatment for substance abuse in 2012.

While it is recognised that the Bill cannot take a zero-tolerance approach to individuals driving after having consumed such prescription drugs, any provision which caught drivers abusing these drugs would strengthen the Bill significantly. At the very least, there is a need for a parallel health education initiative to go with this Bill, especially to inform drivers of the dangers of driving while taking prescribed medications. Last year in the transport committee, Professor Denis Cusack of the MBRS called for as much. A parallel health education initiative is needed to encourage and support drivers with medical conditions to take their prescribed medications in accordance with health care advices and medical fitness to drive guidelines.