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Alcohol and drugs

Don’t drive if you’ve been drinking alcohol or taking drugs. Alcohol and drugs can affect your ability to drive safely, and increase your chances of having a serious crash.

The police can stop you in your car and test you. If you fail the test you will lose your licence and be fined heavily. Download the information sheet about alcohol and drug screening (PDF, 362 KB).

If you’re planning on a big night out, make sure you don’t have to drive home. Arrange a lift or stay at a friend’s house. It’s much safer.

  • Make sure you don’t have any alcohol or drugs before driving. Drivers and riders can be stopped at random by any police officer at any time anywhere in South Australia, and tested for these three illegal drugs as well as alcohol.  This includes a passenger acting as qualified supervising driver for a learner driver.
  • You don't have to be drunk to be affected by alcohol.  You might feel normal, but no one drives as well after drinking alcohol.  Studies have also shown that a driver's risk of being involved in a casualty crash doubles for every increase of 0.05 above zero BAC. Drugs like cannabis, speed and ecstasy can impair performance on driving-related tasks.