More drivers impaired by multiple drugs

Don't drive after drinking.

It's a message we've been hearing for years, drummed into our consciences by campaigns like that mounted by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (née Drivers) and ever-tightening laws that have moved the blood alcohol level from .1 to .08 and even lower in some jurisdictions.

But the stereotypical drink driver no longer fits the standard mold.

Since 1993, according to a study in Public Health Reports, more drivers are testing positive for prescription drugs, cannabis and multiple drugs, and they are more likely to be older than 50.

While the MADD campaign and its ilk have been effective, the nature of fatal crashes is changing, according to Fernando Wilson, Ph.D, associate professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

More and more drivers are under the influence of a cocktail, and we're not talking about a Mai Tai.

Since 1993, the study found, the number of drivers with three or more drugs in their system had nearly doubled by 2013, climbing from 11.5 percent to 21.5 percent.

In 1993, about one in eight drivers were using multiple drugs concurrently, Wilson said, "By 2010, it was closer to one in five. That's a large increase in drug use."

But they're not abandoning alcohol altogether. About 70 percent of drivers who tested positive for cocaine had also been consuming alcohol, and almost 55 percent of drivers who tested positive for cannabis also had alcohol in their systems, he explained.

Drug use is also a function of age: Almost 60 percent of marijuana-only users were younger than 30 years old, and 39 percent of prescription users were 50 years old or older.

We've been dealing with alcohol-impaired driving for almost the entire 130 years since the automobile was invented, but we aren't much better at preventing it than we were in the 1880s.

Everyone, from doctors and lawyers to judges, law enforcement and drivers themselves, need to adjust to the mounting threat non-alcohol drugs have to safe travel.

Ultimately, perhaps something like Google's self-driving car will have to be the answer.