A RECORD number of drug drivers were caught last month.

Essex Police made 184 arrested for the offence across the county in November, surpassing the previous record of 180 in April.

A new anti-drug driving campaign will be launching alongside the Safer Essex Roads Partnership on Wednesday. Head of Roads Policing Adam Pipe said hundreds of officers were trained to use drug wipes and the chances of being caught were high.

He said: “We continue to arrest a huge number of people on suspicion of drug driving.

“We find that many drug drivers don’t realise how long drugs stay in your system and they don’t think they’re going to get caught.

“The reality is we’ve got more than 500 officers across the force trained to use drug wipes so you’re more likely to be caught drug driving in Essex than ever before.

“And just because you don’t look or feel stoned, or don’t feel that your driving is impaired there is a drug driving limit and if you’re over that you’ll be arrested.

“The consequences of drug driving are really serious. You could lose your licence, your job, and your home. Even worse you could kill yourself or someone else.

“In the coming days we’ll be launching an anti-drug driving campaign which aims to raise awareness of the issue.

“We want drug drivers to ask themselves if the high is worth the low?”.

The number of drug driving arrests so far this year stands at 1,675.

The total number for 2018 was 1,039 and in 2017 it was 754.

Also in November 128 people were arrested on suspicion of drink driving and 26 on suspicion of failing to provide a specimen.