With a Ministry of Heath snapshot study of the current landscape of drug use among Jamaicans revealing “clear indications of increases in substance use over the past seven years”, vice chairman of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) Dr Lucien Jones says the entity is ramping up the breathalyser programme and searching for a tool to test motorists for marijuana use.

The study, which was released in November, flagged alcohol prevalence rates for all 14 parishes, singling out the parishes of Trelawny, St Ann and Kingston for outstripping the national prevalence rate that now stands at 46.2 per cent.

In relation to driving under the influence of alcohol, the study said this has increased since 2016 from 14.4 per cent to 17.5 per cent.

Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton, in unveiling the findings during a press briefing in the Corporate Area in November, said the surge was “most notable” in the four per cent increase last year in alcohol use (56 per cent to 60 per cent) as well as in the current year (42 per cent to 46 per cent), and the same level of increase last year in the use of cigarettes (12.7 per cent to 16.8 per cent).

According to the health minister, harmful use of alcohol is most evident among the 25-35 age group while current ganja use is most prevalent among the 18-25 age group. Tufton said, among those who smoke cigarettes, daily use increased from seven per cent in 2016 to 11.6 per cent at present.

Speaking with the Sunday Observer in a recent interview, Dr Jones said: “It’s a challenge that we have for some time; the data that you get internationally is that 30 per cent of drivers who are involved in fatal crashes were found to have been indulging alcohol. We believe the same thing is happening in Jamaica.”

The legal limit in Jamaica is 35 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, or a blood-alcohol level of 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millimetres of blood, with breathalyser machines used to detect the levels.

Jones, in the meantime, said the National Road Safety Council is working with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to strengthen the breathalyser system.

“We have two challenges, one is the breathalyser programme which we are trying to improve through our own efforts, we have received funds from the United Nations Road Safety Fund, through PAHO, and those funds or a portion of it are being used to build up the breathalyser system so we can become effective in testing drivers whether or not they are using alcohol,” Jones told the Sunday Observer.

“Coupled with that issue also is the need for us to be testing people who are driving under the influence of marijuana. The data is quite clear, showing that a significant number of drivers, motorcycle riders admitted to using marijuana and also drinking alcohol shortly before crashing. That data is available to us,” Jones said.

The NRSC vice chair, in the meantime, said the council is trying “to get a mechanism where we can test for marijuana in addition to alcohol”.

“We are actively pursuing that part of it,” he said in noting that many motorists who daily flout road rules and drive erratically “are under the influence” of substances.

While acknowledging the reported 14 per cent drop in road accident deaths, Jones says the council has not relented on its call for toxicology tests to be permitted for dead drivers.

“The law, as currently written, does not allow the police to test for blood alcohol in dead drivers, we have to ask a doctor on duty to do it and the doctors are reluctant unless the law allows that, and right now the law does not allow for it,” Jones told the Sunday Observer.

“We have been asking the Ministry of Health for some time now to intervene and to either give that instruction to the doctors or draft legislation which will allow the doctors to do that; we need either a directive from the ministry or an enabling bit of legislation to allow for doctors to test dead drivers. That discussion has been going on for years now,” he said.

Last year consultant psychiatrist at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), Dr Kunal Lalwani, in a study titled ‘A Secondary Analysis of Alcohol Use and Driving While Intoxicated in Jamaica’, found that approximately one in every five drivers who use alcohol, operate a vehicle under the influence. The study copped the award for the Most Impactful Oral Presentation at the 13th Annual National Health Research Conference in November 2022.

Up to Friday, December 27, there were 362 fatalities reported on the nation’s roads.

JONES…the data is quite clear, showing that a significant number of drivers, motorcycle riders admitted to using marijuana and also drinking alcohol shortly before crashing.

Current ganja use in Jamaica is most prevalent among the 18-25 age group. (Photo: AFP)