Someone told me they take drugs and they want driving lessons.. What do I do?

Crickey Chris or Ruth look at your advertising you are getting yourself some difficult customers !!!!

Ok its another question.... Reckon you'd need to know the background.... what do they take, how often, are they on prescription drugs. for what? & can they drive with them. Or are they an addict or a 'social' drug user.etc, etc. You need to assess everything before you even contemplate taking them out for a lesson.

HaHa Julie, just another day at the office

Does anyone find out about any medication that your pupils take?
Sometimes time of day can affect your students performance on a lesson due to medication needs.
Does anyone know the percentage of 17-21 year olds who take social drugs? If you take 25 to test in a year, then every 4% is another of your students potentially using recreational drugs. How do you manage that?

I do talk about drink drugs, tiredness etc on a first lesson but I dont ask them specifically if they take any drugs. I presume rightly or wrongly if they have a licence any prescription drugs they need for a condition would have been discussed by the doctor & declared if needs be when applying for a licence. An addict I would hope I would spot just by their behaviour. Social drugs again if the pupil is acting strangely that may give you a clue but you can't ask pupils every time you see them, 'have you taken any drugs today' can you. Had two pupils who over dosed on pyriton, showed in their driving straight away but it took a bit of q&a to suss out what was causing it. As far as drink is concerned I think most of my pupils are very sensible & I have had several cancellations coz of the night before or a planed event.

Doubt anyone knows the percentage it would just be a guess. As long as we feel the pupil has full control over their facalities I don't think we are able to know if any drugs including alcohol have been taken..... Expect you will disagree but at qef it's more than likely your pupils are on medication so the question is expected by your pupils. Maybe the question would not be taken in the same way out here. Especially if you asked it on every lesson

You always give good responses Julie

You can only do what you can. It's a big world out there and they come to us for driving lessons

I think that it's important for us to be aware of such issues and have a plan for how we would deal with them.
Medication is a complex area, recreational drug use a fact of modern life.

I did a quick google search just out of interest and found an article which included this:

Young adults had the highest rate of current illicit drug use, with 22.2 % of 18- to 20-year-olds using, and 20.5 % of 21- to 25-year-olds.

You can't ask 1 in 5 of your pupils to leave the car. I think looking for patterns of behaviour, asking tactful questions and giving responsible advice is as far as we can go in reality.

When I read your post, I immediately assumed it would be illegal drugs. Did they actually say that? If they were on prescription drugs I would have expected them to say they are on medication rather than use the word 'drugs'. Either way though, check it out.

I found out one of my ex pupils was a dealer - perhaps they know each other!!

High Lesley?

Probably a drug dealer is OK to teach, they wouldn't want to hit their own profits.....
Not sure about anyone they recommend though

I think prescription drugs would be alright What do you think?

Well, he was a bit 'away with the fairies' on some lessons, but then he was 17 and some of them are like that anyway, so how do you tell???

He lives over the back of us, and apparently his house and car was raided by police...unfortunately we were away and I found out from a neighbour. Obviously haven't been able to ask either him or his Mum so will be wondering forever!!!

Prescription drugs can seriously affect you, so would need to find out more - if in doubt ask for the instructions from the medication...even cough medicine can have an adverse affect.

What did you do?

Hayfever remedies are notorious.
Medication is an individual thing. I've taken people out on assessments that usevery powerful drugs.
GP's don't inform the DVLA when their patient changes medication. The instructions on the side often state that you shouldn't operate heavy machinery if it makes you drowsy etc. So even the drug companies don't know

The subject is very open which is why I thought we could discuss it.

Good Idea and great topic to bring up for discussion.

Ian suffers from MS and is on very powerful drugs. He has probs with sleeping and fatigue!!! So he takes drugs to keep him awake during the day, then needs others to send him off to sleep at night. If he forgets to take them he gets REALLY sleepy.

At least I can take over the driving if I'm with him!

I think illegal drugs are not as much of a problem as prescription drugs.

I have used hayfever tablets for the last 30 years & I know its not affected my driving. But I have had pupils that have overdosed on them by mistake & it has had an effect.

So is it down to us to be a doctor as well & know the possible side effects of any drugs that maybe taken ????

I think an idea maybe that anyone on prescription drugs should come with a 'doctors letter' explaining what they are on & the possible side effects. It should be a well publicized law ! or is that breaching some data protection act Chris??

This whole subject is very vague as far as I am concerned & seems to be reliant on how perceptive the instructor is.

What are our guidelines??

We shouldn't be expected to suspect everybody on every single lesson should we ????

Although medication could be a private matter, when it comes to driving or learning to drive it could be crucial.
With many medical conditions there can be good days and bad days? A good time of day and a bad time of day? Should someone have a driving lesson when they have just taken their medication or some time after?

The only way anyone can know the answer is to ask the question. I realise that at QEF, people have an expectation to share this type of information, however I think that if an ADI suspects something is going on with their pupil, maybe it would be a help to their pupil if they consider these matters

Hi Julie, I was just responding to Lesley

The subject is vague. As always we can only rely on honesty and observation

Even the Police have difficulty with testing for drugs and prescription medication is beyond even those who prescribe them. How one drug interacts with another!!! We don't have a chance. I just thought to have a conversation

That's exactly what I was trying to say in a subtle way....... we don't stand a chance do we.

Ps Im always willing to have a conversation tho