ONE in five Wimmera drivers drug tested during the past four months returned a positive result.

The majority of people caught were found to be driving with crystal methamphetamine in their systems.

Senior Constable Cameron Cooper believes ice has become like marijuana in the 1970s - it's almost socially acceptable.

He said it used to be that people shared a joint among friends and no-one batted an eyelid.

Today, they are passing around the ice pipe.

The purest form of amphetamine, ice produces an intense rush that can last between four and 12 hours.

Ice users experience a feeling of exhilaration and increased arousal and activity levels.

They feel awake, confident, strong, alive. At least until they come down.

Ice is highly addictive. Substance abuse counsellors warn there is no such thing as a part-time ice user.

As a member of the Horsham Highway Patrol unit, Sen Const Cooper has seen first-hand the slippery slope of ice use.

"I've heard it so many times, 'I only tried it once, but now I'm hooked on it because of the hit and I need it again'," he said.

He said while drivers generally admitted to using alcohol or marijuana, they were in denial about ice.

"I put it down to that while they're on it, they have so much confidence that nothing seems to be a problem," he said.

"By the time you get them back to the station and have a chat to them, normally the reason they're using ice is because they've got issues.

"The issues go away while they're using ice but after they come down, the problems are bigger and they're in a worse position.

"Now that there's drug testing for driving, we're finding a lot of people are getting caught."

Sen Const Cooper said drivers in the Horsham police service area had returned 80 positive results during the past four months.

"We test about 100 drivers a month and ice is the main drug found in their system," he said.

"What we've found is you can't profile an ice user these days. It could be a young 17 or 18-year-old from down the road who doesn't go to school or anything, or it could be a 45-year-old mechanic who's got a few issues and ends up smoking ice."

Sen Const Cooper said many people were able to hide their ice use, at least for a while.

"There's guys around town - and females -  who are working their 40 to 50-hour week and still relying on ice.

"They are controlling it to a point but once they get caught and lose their licence they go into a big downward spiral."

Sen Const Cooper has seen ice users lose their jobs, their houses and their families.

"Sometimes we're finding people who had good quality jobs in the community have been before the court four or five times for drug driving and driving while suspended and now they're looking at jail time," he said.

"We offer a counselling service once they come in here, but that's as far as we go.

"It's got to come back to the person taking responsibility for their own actions in terms of their drug use."

Sen Const Cooper said police deliberately targeted recidivist drug drivers to ensure they stayed off the roads while using.

"A lot of the drug drivers, before they've actually lost their licence, will keep driving," he said.

"We can test someone that night and let them go. They're banned from driving for 12 hours after they're tested.

"After 12 hours we can test them again - they swear black and blue they haven't used, and they'll be positive again, because ice stays in their system for so long."

He said they often claimed they were being bullied, picked on or harassed by police.

"We get threats," he said.

 "I could sit here for hours going on about the drug dealers being upset with me.

"I tell them they should be thanking me - they've got the safest street in town because we're constantly there.

"There's mothers and fathers who bring their kids to school that I've knocked off for drug driving and then I've got to face them the next day at school.

"As a parent, I'm disgusted they are drug driving. I make no apology for that."

Sen Const Cooper spent a week in Texas earlier this year as part of the Victoria Police Crime And Traffic Connecting on Highways - CATCH - initiative.

CATCH is aligned with the law enforcement strategy of highway criminal interdiction, which enhances police officers' observational, conversational, listening and investigative skills when intercepting and searching vehicles.

"We learnt about identifying driving habits of people on the road and then working out from their different sorts of behaviours whether we want to have a chat with them and see if they're perhaps carrying drugs, money, cash, weapons or they're paedophiles leaving the state," Sen Const Cooper said.

"It's led to, for me, intercepting more than a quarter of a million dollars in cash, 17 pounds of

cannabis, a pill press and catching a sex offender leaving the state," Sen Const Cooper said.

He said the United States had specific units dedicated to looking at traffic behaviour.

"While I was over there I did a shift with Texas Highway Patrol," Sen Const Cooper said.

"Being on the border of Mexico they get a lot of drugs come across from there. We're talking tonnes of cannabis and hundreds of kilos of cocaine and hundreds of kilos of meth.

"It's working over there and it's already starting to work here we're getting some good results out of it."

If you or someone you know needs help or advice phone Grampians Community Health on 5362 1200 or visit the team at 25 David Street, Horsham.