A fresh survey from the California Office of Transportation Safety reveals that most drivers in California get it—driving while high on drugs isn’t just risky, it can be downright deadly. The surprising bit? Over three-quarters of these drivers feel that the issue of folks driving after taking either illegal or legal drugs is snowballing. Dive in to uncover what this might mean for road safety and how the tides might turn in driver behavior.

In what seems to fly in the face of conventional wisdom, more than 90 percent of those drivers surveyed said they were firmly in favor of driver checkpoints designed to check for drivers who might be under the influence of either drugs or alcohol. And only one percent of those surveyed said they felt drivers caught under the influence of drugs should be treated less harshly than those caught driving under the influence of alcohol.

This follows closely on the heels of a report which indicated that a full 14 percent of California drivers admitted that they often drive under the influence of drugs. It is unclear f these are prescription drugs, cold medicine or something illegal such as recreational marijuana, but regardless of what drugs are they were under the influence of, they should not have been driving.

Often drivers think they can take their prescription medicine then get behind the wheel of a 3-ton missile made of steel, plastic and glass and head to the store-or the library, or around the block. In fact, many of these perfectly legal medications cause drowsiness, or simply cause a person to be less connected to what is going on around them, and therefore should not be taken if they are planning to drive any where. Anything which can distract your attention, or simply inhibit your ability to focus or concentrate or just pay attention is dangerous when you are trying to navigate the roadways.

And that’s not our opinion, it’s a fact.