Measures against driving under the influence of drugs--the county medical officer's role. A 2-year material from Vest-Agder

Driving under the influence of drugs is a serious road safety problem. Since 1995, the county medical officer of Vest-Agder has given measures to reduce this problem high priority. Maximum acceptable daily doses were introduced for psychoactive drugs, and the daily intake was calculated in the individual case, based on information about prescriptions for a minimum period of three months. A total of 46 cases led to reactions during the years 1995 and 1996; these consisted of a warning to the driver (38 cases), a recommendation to the police to suspend the license (23 cases) or advising the licensing authorities to change the conditions of the license (six cases). Combinations of psychoactive drugs were used in 39 cases. One of the benzodiazepines was judged to represent the highest risk in 32 cases, and an opioid analgesic in ten cases. Information was usually obtained from monitoring doctors' prescriptions, rarely directly from the doctors themselves. Greater alertness, combined with objective guidelines, might help reduce the problem. In our opinion, stricter regulations are not necessary.