Why Drug-Driving Has Overtaken Drink-Driving as Britain’s Top Road Danger

Drug-driving convictions have overtaken drink-driving convictions in Britain for the first time, and young drivers make up a disproportionate share of the cases. New figures show motorists aged 17 to 24 accounted for nearly one in five drug-driving endorsements last year, while holding only a fraction of the country’s licences.

The figures behind the shift

Figures obtained by road safety charity IAM RoadSmart through a Freedom of Information request show drivers aged 17 to 24 received 18% of all drug-driving endorsements in 2025, while representing just 6% of all licence holders. That imbalance means a young driver is roughly three times more likely to be caught driving under the influence of drugs than their share of the driving population would predict.

A total of 30,707 drug-driving endorsements were added to licences in 2025, up 28% from 23,981 in 2022. Drink-driving endorsements moved in the opposite direction: 29,981 were recorded last year, down 17% from 35,976 three years earlier. For the first time on record, drug-driving cases outnumbered drink-driving cases.

The figures are drawn from DVLA records for DG10 and DR10 endorsement codes, which are applied to the licences of motorists convicted of driving or attempting to drive while over the legal limit for drugs or alcohol respectively.

How roadside drug testing works

Officers who suspect a driver is impaired can carry out a roadside saliva swab using a handheld device that tests for cannabis and cocaine, the two substances most commonly linked to drug-driving stops. The test takes around eight minutes to produce a result. Where officers suspect a wider range of drugs, or where the roadside device is inconclusive, the driver is taken to a police station for a blood test that screens for a broader panel of substances.

What the law actually says

Under Section 5A of the Road Traffic Act 1988, it is an offence to drive with more than a specified amount of certain controlled drugs in the blood, regardless of whether the driving itself appeared impaired. For cannabis, the limit is 2 micrograms of THC per litre of blood, a threshold set deliberately low to catch any recent use rather than only heavy intoxication. Prosecutors do not need to prove a driver’s ability was actually affected, only that the drug was present above the legal limit.

THC can remain detectable in a roadside saliva test for up to 24 hours after use in occasional users, and considerably longer in regular users, meaning a driver can fail a test the morning after use while no longer feeling any effect. Cocaine and its metabolites can be detected for a similar window, typically 24 to 48 hours depending on how frequently someone uses the drug.

Anyone convicted of drug-driving faces a minimum 12-month driving ban, an unlimited fine and up to six months in prison. A conviction also brings a criminal record that can affect employment, especially for anyone who drives for work, and typically pushes future insurance premiums sharply higher for years afterwards.

The human cost and the political response

Department for Transport statistics show 74 people died on Britain’s roads in 2024 in crashes where a driver impaired by drugs was recorded as a contributory factor. A DfT spokesperson described the new figures as “deeply concerning,” adding that “drug-driving is reckless, dangerous and ruins lives.”

The danger became a headline case this week when Daniel Tunstead, 35, from Widnes, was sentenced after reaching speeds of 167mph while being pursued by police on the A55 in North Wales. Tunstead received an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and a three-year driving ban after admitting drug-driving, dangerous driving and driving without insurance.

Nicholas Lyes, director of policy and external communications at IAM RoadSmart, said the figures point to a shift in the nature of impaired driving on British roads. “It’s becoming clear that the UK is mired in a drug-driving epidemic, to the point where it may now be more of a threat on our streets than drink-driving,” he said. “The government’s Road Safety Strategy clearly outlines the intention to tackle drug-driving, but we need to start seeing action soon before more lives are needlessly lost.”

Lyes said police should be given powers to suspend a licence at the roadside immediately after a driver fails a drug swab test, rather than waiting for a court date, and called for wider public education to correct common misconceptions about how long drugs affect driving ability. The government has committed to tackling drug-driving through its Road Safety Strategy, published in January, including reviewing penalties and exploring faster methods of gathering evidence from saliva or sweat samples.

Why cannabis and cocaine dominate the figures

Cannabis and cocaine account for the overwhelming majority of drug-driving stops, largely as they are the two substances the standard roadside swab device is built to detect. Prescription and over-the-counter medicines can also trigger an offence under a separate part of the law if they impair driving ability, but police generally only test for these where a driver’s behaviour raises specific concern, as the roadside device does not screen for them directly.

Drivers taking prescribed medication such as certain painkillers, sleeping tablets or anxiety treatments are not automatically breaking the law if they hold a valid prescription and have not exceeded their prescribed dose, provided their driving is not impaired. Anyone unsure whether a medicine could put them over a legal limit should check the patient information leaflet or ask a pharmacist, as several common prescription drugs, including some benzodiazepines and opioid painkillers, carry their own specified limits under the same 2015 law that introduced the cannabis and cocaine thresholds.

What this means for young drivers and their families

Parents insuring a newly qualified driver should be aware that a drug-driving conviction affects a policy far more severely than a standard speeding endorsement, often making a car uninsurable through mainstream insurers for years. Anyone who drives the morning after using cannabis or cocaine, even socially, should assume they remain over the legal limit and avoid driving until the substance has fully cleared their system, which can take longer than most people expect.

Employers who rely on staff to drive for work, including delivery firms and care providers, are increasingly building drug and alcohol screening into their own recruitment and spot-check processes given the scale of the rise recorded in these figures.

How the figures compare across the UK

The DVLA endorsement data used in this analysis covers Great Britain as a whole, but police forces report significant regional variation in enforcement activity, partly reflecting how many roadside testing devices each force has deployed and how heavily local roads policing units prioritise drug detection over other traffic offences. Rural forces with smaller roads policing teams have historically recorded lower drug-driving detection rates than urban forces, a pattern researchers attribute to lower device coverage rather than lower actual drug use among rural drivers.

Scotland and Northern Ireland record drug-driving offences separately from the DVLA endorsement system referenced here, so the 30,707 figure for 2025 reflects England and Wales alongside the wider British licensing base rather than the whole of the UK. Analysts caution against reading small year-to-year regional shifts too literally, as a single force changing its testing equipment or deployment pattern can move the local numbers considerably without reflecting any underlying change in driver behaviour. A force that buys more DrugWipe kits or assigns extra roads policing officers to evening patrols will typically record more detections the following year, purely as a function of increased capacity rather than a genuine rise in offending. Campaigners argue the true national scale is likely worse than the headline figures suggest, as roadside testing still catches only a fraction of drivers who get behind the wheel impaired.

Sources:

• Carwow: Young drivers at the centre of UK’s ‘drug-driving epidemic’
• Road Traffic Act 1988, Section 5A
• Motoring Chronicle: How England’s Drink Drive Limit Could Soon Fall to Match Scotland’s Tougher Threshold
• Motoring Chronicle: What the World Cup Drink Drive Crackdown Means for Drivers This Summer