Police Challenged by Crashes Involving Prescription Drugs

Car crashes involving prescription drugs are often harder to detect and prosecute than those involving alcohol or illicit drugs, the New York Times reported recently. Drunk-driving crashes are declining, but law-enforcement officials say that more people are being charged with driving under the influence of prescription drugs. However, unlike with alcohol, there's no standard for intoxication for prescription painkillers, anti-anxiety medications, and other legal drugs that may or may not be used according to their prescription. Also, taking such drugs (alone or in combination with other substances or alcohol) has widely different effects on different people -- all of which makes prosecuting such offenses more difficult.

Blood-alcohol content is the standard to measure drunk driving, and some states have made any detectable level of illicit drugs the presumption for intoxication. But that won't work for prescription drugs, which are legal. Police departments are training officers to detect impairment by prescription drugs, and experts said that prevention and education also must play a role.

"We have a pretty clear message in this country that you don't drink and drive," Office of National Drug Control Policy Director R. Gil Kerlikowske told the Times. "We need very much to have a similar message when it comes to drugs." I

n court, people accused of driving under the influence of prescription drugs often claim they didn't realize they were impaired. Prosecutors counter that such drugs have warning labels that should be heeded, but juries often sympathize with the drivers.