Police ill-equipped to check drivers abusing drugs

While the United States and the UK have been working at making laws against driving under the influence of psychotropic intoxicants harsher, the Delhi Police is terribly ill-equipped even when it comes to catching the average cannabis-smoker.

While the United States and the UK have been working at making laws against driving under the influence of psychotropic intoxicants harsher, the Delhi Police is terribly ill-equipped even when it comes to catching the average cannabis-smoker.

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Even as Satyendra Garg, joint commissioner of police (traffic) maintained that ‘such cases are harshly dealt with whenever detected’, sources claim that traffic police officers aren’t even adept at using breath-analyzers.

“Though it is theoretically possible to check whether or not a person is under the influence of any psychotropic substance, most such go unnoticed and unpunished because of the emphasis only on drunk driving,” said a senior police officer.

Substance abuse has not only been reported to be prevalent among drivers of commercial vehicles to while away time during their daily, long-winding, interstate-commutes but also among minor children from affluent socio-economic backgrounds zipping to adjacent Gurgaon and Noida after the capital’s watering holes run dry.

However, the police maintain that since drug abuse isn’t as prevalent in Delhi as it is in the west, no separate provisions have been made to crack-down on driving while impaired just yet.