DRUG DRIVERS DON'T CARE ABOUT THEMSELVES AND DON'T CARE ABOUT "YOU"

The shocking revelations that a staggering one in five young drivers on Queensland roads are testing positive for illicit drugs certainly indicates that we have a long way to go as far as education and public awareness is concerned, to get the message through to the younger generation that illicit drugs and driving is real bad news. 

They're exactly that when they stupidly decide to get behind the wheel and drive on our roads while dangerously under the influence of a prohibited drug.

Obviously, besides the road safety message falling on deaf ears with a big proportion of the younger generation, the message about the immense health hazards of using them is also not getting through. 

It's a common but dreadfully misguided analogy which a lot of recreational drug users have, as an example, that a "bit of ice won't hurt you and is okay",that you can get "stoned on some weed" but you will be as "good as gold" the next day. Totally alert and coherent to be able to drive a vehicle safely?

Yeah right! This is the sort of embedded, generational attitude that is an obstruction to any attempt to educate the younger generation that illicit drug use is not only a road safety hazard but a significant health hazard, to themselves. 

If illicit drug users don't care about themselves, if their care factor about their own health and wellbeing is zero, then their care factor about the risk they pose to others on the road when they drive under the influence is also zero. 

There has to be much more severe penalties put in place for drug driving, and Queensland police have to be out in force on a much more common and bigger scale specifically to target drug drivers. 

That will achieve a whole lot more to make our roads a safer place to be than having speed camera vans nabbing drivers for doing 7 k's over the speed limit.