The National Drug Driving Working Group (NDDWG), established in 2017, meets biannually, bringing together knowledge, experience and resources of governments and other parties to work towards a national best practice model of roadside drug testing and deterrence.
The work of the NDDWG supports implementation of priorities that target risky road use behaviours in the National Road Safety Strategy.
Roadside drug testing scoping study and report
A 2018 NDDWG report found that Australia is the world leader in drug driving enforcement and deterrence. The report considers strategies to guide our future approach to reducing drug driving on Australian roads and made 11 recommendations for all jurisdictions to consider in working towards a national best practice model of roadside drug testing and general deterrence. View the Australia's Second Generational Approach to Roadside Drug Testing report.
Prior to the formation of the NDDWG, a national roadside drug testing scoping study was completed. The researchers noted that overall, Australia has the most intensive roadside drug testing program in the world, with roadside oral fluid testing introduced in Australia a decade or more before any other jurisdiction internationally.
Roadside drug testing dashboard
The Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE) in collaboration with members of the NDDWG has developed a roadside drug testing dashboard.
The interactive dashboard allows users to view information relating to the number of roadside drug tests conducted on an annual basis, enabling comparisons to be made from previous years. It also highlights:
- number of road side drug tests conducted by jurisdiction
- positive results returned
- number of road deaths involving an illegal drug (based on the information available).
Enforcement data is provided to BITRE by the state and territory police authorities for reporting and monitoring our performance against the National Road Safety Strategy.
View the annual roadside drug testing dashboard.