DRUGS and DRIVING

Its primary objective is to provide ciritcal reviews of research problem areas and techniques, the content of state-of-the-art conferences, integrative research reviews and significant original research. Its dual publication emphasis is rapid and targeted dissemination to the scientific and professional community. ACKNOWLEDGMENT A complementary volume to this, entitled Drugs and Driving: A Research Review (contract MT-HS-4-00994) will be available through the National Technical Information Service. In addition, the reader should be aware of an ongoing DOT National Highway Traffic Safety Administration project (State of Knowledge and Information in Alcohol/Druge and Highway Safety; DOT-HS-S-01217) that is critically evaluating existing research pertaining to drug related accident risk, and is preparing a comprehensive outline of the additional research required to assess fully the magnitude and extent of the drug/highway safety problem. The final report wiil be available towards the end of the year. NIDA is grateful for the contribution of DOT observers at the conference. The conference summary in this monograph is an initial probe to identify key areas for future research attention where present findings remain uncertain and sometimes controversial. The conference summary should not be taken as representing DOT policy or interpretations. Thanks are due the people of Research Triangle Institute, who capably organized and coordinated the panel conference, held August 20, 1976 at Rockville, Maryland, under NIDA contract 271-75-1016, from which the papers of this monograph are derived. NIDA Research Monographs are indexed in the INDEX MEDICUS. DHEW publication number (ADM) 77-438 Library of Congress catalog card number 77-70426 iv FOREWORD It is now fashionable to recognize the negative effects of the rapid growth of technology in the 20th century. Nowhere is the negative side of this revolution more striking than in the area of drugs and driving. The world is now on wheels. High-speed vehicles are in the hands of virtually everyone over the age of 16. Impaired driving dramatically raises the risks we each face daily-not only the risks inherent in our own driving performance but those which result from the performance of other drivers. Not only has technology let us get behind the wheels of cars, it has also opened a treasure chest of old and new mind-altering chemicals. Only in recent years have we begun to grasp the significant role played by alcohol in highway safety. Within the last decade the drug use epidemic has added a complex array of other drugs which influence driving ability. …