More than half of motorists screened during a summer crackdown on drug-driving failed roadside tests, figures have shown.
An average of 37 drivers a day were caught driving under the influence of banned substances, or 57% of the 1,962 motorists tested.
Data from 38 police forces in England and Wales, from 14 June to 15 July, show there was a wide gap between the numbers of people tested for alcohol and other drugs.
During that period, 36,675 breath tests for alcohol were carried out, with 3,667 – about one in 10 drivers – being either positive, refused or failed by the driver.
Last year, 1,084 of the 2,022 tests for drug-driving came back positive (53.6%), while in 2016, 1,028 of 2,588 tests were failed (39.7%), figures from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) show.
Officers use so-called drugalysers to check for cocaine and cannabis after swabbing a suspect’s mouth, while a blood test can be used at a police station to check for ecstasy and heroin. They can be used for motorists seen driving erratically or who have been involved in an accident.
Ch Con Anthony Bangham, the NPCC lead for roads policing, said: “Driving under the influence of drink or drugs is an incredibly dangerous and selfish decision to take, and it can have devastating consequences on people’s lives.