They drink their fill, but ignore the pills

Press, 15 September 1976, Page 11

They drink their fill, but ignore the pills

Wellington reporter

Many types of tran- ’ quilliser drugs are prescribed in New Zealand, ' but it is not generally appreciated that if a per-1 son taking these drugs 1 also drinks alcohol, then , the combined effect will i probably lead to a much ’ greater impairment of! driving performance. . Methods of determining 1 drug levels in blood samples from drivers killed or injured 1 in road accidents have been ’ under study- by the toxicology t section of the chemistry divi- f sion of the D.S.I.R. for the s last two years. 1 By mixing a minute blood! sample with various chemi-1; cals, it is hoped to be able to * < estimate the significance ofi, these drugs as a factor road accidents in New Zea- ;( land. ; The toxicology section has < b°en working with Valium, j Librium, Mogadon and Lar- ( cxyl. and eventually hopes to j cover all the major tranquillisers, sedatives, hypnotics j and anti-depressants in New j Zealand. < Valium alone accounts for < about 27 per cent of the tak- i tng of these drugs. Asprin-type drugs, anti- j biotics and most heart pills i do not interact with alcohol, so are not being studied, but 1 any drug which has an effect; on the mind can be danger- i ous on its own, and particu- ’ larly in combination with al- 1 coh’ol. Even the relatively i mild codeine can interact with,] alcohol, because it is related '< to morphine. !< In 1973-74 (the last figures!) available) there were 189,983,800 prescribed doses i of these tranquillisers, seda- < Lives, hypnotics, and anti- ’ depressants in New Zealand 1 — about 90 doses for ever.' t adult member of the population. ; The D.S.I.R. has developed J special methods to cope with!

the very small drug quantities in the very small blood samples, often only one fifth of a millilitre, with which it has to work. It has also had to develop some very sophisticated equipment Dr A. W. Missen, the scientist undertaking the research says the section hopes to have a comprehensive picture by the end of 1977, but it already has some answers and the project will be a continuing one. He is sent blood from all; fatal accidents, or accidents where alcohol is involved sufficiently for the driver to have failed a breath test and neces-] |sitate a blood sample being’ 'taken. 1 This means though that he | is not getting blood samples i from all accidents where alI cohot is involved, because if ithe driver passes the breath (test, then the traffic officer has no power to take a blood test, even though the Combined effects of alcohol and drugs may have severely impaired the driver. After two years, in which 1000 samples were screened, Dr Missen found 26 positive cases where Valium was present. In some of these cases, the toxicology section was specifically asked by the Ministry of Transport to look for the presence of Valium. Dr Missen says it seems that there is no data available in New Zealand on how many people are driving while under the influence of; therapeutic drugs, let alone; in combination with alcohol.! .He hopes to get around this! difficulty by undertaking a; 1 confidential survey of motorists. “I think that compared with some countries overseas which have done similar work, the problem in New Zealand is not too grave,” he says. “The problem of drinking and driving seems far more (important. “Still, people are much

more aware of the risks of driving after drinking, but do not realise the risks in driving after even a very small amount of alcohol while under the influence of a therapeutic drug. However, it was likely to be some time before the D.S.I.R. was in any position to recommend legislation to cover this situation.

While a blood-alcohol level can generally be guaged fairly accurately after drinkpng a specific amount, the leffects of a drug may vary ten-fold between two people, I which makes it hard to envisage any legislation pre- ■ scribing limits of tolerance ■ until much more, is known about the situation. Dr Missen says that even if traffic officers are empowered to take blood tests where drugs were suspected, there is still no known way of testing how impaired the driver was.