Wilfried Devillers / Photo credit: ROMAIN LONGIERAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 19:53 p.m., May 27, 2023, modified at 19:56 p.m., May 27, 2023

While one in five fatal accidents in France is due to drug use, according to 2021 road safety figures, the Ministry of the Interior has again promised to strengthen controls on the road. Europe 1 followed a gendarmerie patrol along the A77 motorway, near Nemours.

REPORT

Close to Nemours, it is a strategic toll close to Paris on this big bridge weekend. Lieutenant Jean-Gabriel signals a sports coupe to stop. "Have you used any narcotics recently?" he asks the driver. "We will give you a screening: you put the device in your mouth for about fifteen seconds and you rub well everywhere. You will have red lines that must appear; They mean that the test has worked and that there is an absence of substances, drugs," explains the lieutenant.

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Cocktail of narcotics

These tests are becoming more common. They identify the main products, from cannabis to opiates to cocaine. "The results for narcotics show that there is cannabis first and cocaine is two. We also have more and more cocktails, that is to say people who regularly consume both, "he explains.

This year, controls have been reinforced in Seine-et-Marne, explains Lieutenant Jean-Gabriel. "All the gendarmes of the department of Seine-et-Marne this year have already found 932 driving procedures having used drugs, with an accidentology unfortunately very unfavorable." In the department, authorities have recorded a 19% increase in positive tests compared to the same period in 2022.