Where I live, we have random breath testing units. This is where the police choose a random stretch of road and time, and pull over either the entire stream of

Where I live, we have random breath testing units. This is where the police choose a random stretch of road and time, and pull over either the entire stream of traffic and each driver has to blow into a breathalyser, or they randomly sample traffic if there is too much, and each sampled driver has to blow. I got sampled just recently on a sunday afternoon, ironically on the way home from buying a large case of beer and wine to stock the larder for the christmas period. The testing office laughed when I pointed to it and said 'not until I get home'. In the big operations they actually have a mobile police station in a truck, and if you register over the limit in the portable device, you are taken into the 'station' and booked immediately. Since the introduction of this probably 20 years ago, the DUI rates have plummeted. Last year, over 12 million drivers were tested, which resulted in about 100,000 convictions, a rate of 0.8%. Since the introduction in the 1980s, there has been a reduction in the single vehicle, nighttime fatal accident rate of 26%, as well as an overall reduction in accidents across the board. Before the program started, fatal road accidents testing showed that the driver of the vehicle recorded a blood alcohol content of 50mg or higher (0.05) in 49% of accidents. This has been reduced to around 20% now, along with a nearly halving of fatal accidents (fatality rates are also reduced with mandatory seatbelts, increased speed limit enforcement and improvements in vehicle design). There is no argument that increased enforcement lowers the chance that a road user will be involved in a fatal accident. In any case of decriminalization, this information must be used to design an enforcement program for driving that goes along with it. There's no doubt plenty of people are driving around stoned right now - so arguably any random testing should include alcohol, marijuana, amphetamines, cocaine and other drugs all in one simple test. Perhaps the technology isn't there yet, but it's one of the most effective harm minimisation strategies available.