Welcome to K-Town, party town

Kelowna's reputation as a hard working, hard playing party town is alive and well.

Results of a survey done earlier this year by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse shows you're more likely to encounter a driver under the influence of alcohol or drugs in Kelowna than other cities in the province.

Between 1:30 a.m. and 3 a.m., one in every four Kelowna drivers is under the influence of alcohol while one in every eight drivers is under the influence of some for of drugs.

The survey was conducted in June in Kelowna, Prince George, Vancouver, Saanich and Abbotsford.

Motorists were asked to voluntarily provide breath and oral fluid samples for the survey. They were also asked questions pertaining to driving under the influence of either drugs or alcohol.

The survey was conducted in 90 minute increments in four different locations from 9 p.m. until 3 a.m. from Wednesday to Saturday evening.

While the final report on the survey won't be available until next month, Doug Beirness with the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse felt it was important to get the information out now.

"We wanted to come out here, at this time of year particularly, because December is typically the time that we focus on impaired driving issues," says Beirness.

"We wanted to make sure it wasn't just a message of alcohol and driving but drugs and driving as well."

The CCSA has been conducting tests in the province since 1995, however, this is the first year Kelowna has been included in the survey.

Since 1995, the number of people caught or admitting to driving while under the influence has dropped.

"That's good news. People seem to be getting the message, it's slow, it's painful but they're getting the message."

Beirness says the alarming stat is for people driving while over .08.

That number has climbed from 2% in 1995 to nearly 3% in both 2008 and 2010.

"That's a concern. People are getting the message overall but there's a small group of people that don't seem to get it. And, it seems to be getting a little bit worse."

As for driving while under the influence of drugs, nearly 15% of all Kelowna drivers tested positive for some form of drug. More than 75% was for marijuana and 18% for cocaine.

The survey also found that the occurrence of drugs in a driver's system was just as likely with older drivers as it was with younger ones.

Beirness adds that while most people who had been drinking were coming from a pub, club, restaurant or a friend's house, the majority of drug users were coming from home, a house party or from work (10%).

CCSA spokesperson Erin Beasley who took part in Friday's presentation, says in respect to Kelowna, the survey shows in a nutshell we have more drinkers and drug users than any other community in the survey.

However, she says it's not all gloom and doom.

"There's a lot of social drinkers. Even though we have 13% of drivers testing positive for alcohol a lot of them are between zero and .05," says Beasley.

"That's different than the other cities. There's also a lot of drivers out there testing at higher levels for alcohol as well. Overall the alcohol is up and the drugs are up."

Ultimately, Beirness says he hopes the federal government will look at the numbers and realize more money needs to be spent on enforcement.

He says over a seven year period between 2000 and 2007, more than half (55%) of all drivers killed in motor vehicle accidents in Canada had either alcohol, drugs or both in their system.

"We need more enforcement, there's no question about it. If the police don't have the tools to be able to do it you can't expect them to do it. There's needs to be more money put into it."

Beasley adds that more prevention is also needed.

While people know about drinking and driving, she says a lot of people are ignorant when it comes to driving while under the effects of drugs, especially marijuana.