REGULAR blitzes on drug-affected drivers are starting to result in more of them facing court than drink-drivers on some days.
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On Wagga Local Court's list day this week there were six people charged with driving with an illicit drug in their blood compared to five people on drink-driving charges.
The court list reflects the results of police operations during which a growing number people - some who have taken drugs days before being pulled over - are being caught with drugs in their system.
In late June, one in 12 drivers on Riverina roads subjected to random drug tests over four days were arrested for driving under the influence of a prohibited substance.
Of 600 drivers tested, 48 returned positive readings for cannabis or methamphetamine (ice).
Only two were charged with drink-driving offences.
And in March, a two-day operation in Wagga netted 21 drug-affected drivers and just two drink-drivers.
In sentencing two drug-drivers this week, magistrate Megan Greenwood said she needed to send a message of general deterrence to the community.
"You might have learned your lesson, but people keep on doing it," Ms Greenwood said to 21-year-old Kooringal woman Chantelle Merie Simpson in fining her $330 and disqualifying her from driving for three months.
Simpson proved positive to cannabis after submitting to an oral fluid test in Mount Austin on June 7.
A former Wagga man now living in Melbourne, 21-year-old Michael Cameron Woodham, was given the same penalty after he pleaded guilty to driving with methamphetamine in his system on Dobney Avenue on the same day.
Ms Greenwood said that despite governments spending millions of dollars on campaigns warning people against driving with alcohol and drugs in their system, people of ordinarily good character continued to offend.
Two other people - 37-year-old Geraldine Kitson and 32-year-old Amanda Jane Ryan - also pleaded guilty to driving with illegal drugs in their system.
Kitson was arrested after she crashed her car into a tree at Borambola on March 14.
She had methamphetamine in her system.
Her case has been adjourned in order to undertake the Magistrates Early Referral Into Treatment (MERIT) program.
Ryan tested positive to cannabis and methamphetamine after being stopped for a random drug test on Connorton Street on June 7.
She will be sentenced on October 20 after undertaking a traffic offenders program.
Two other people did not enter pleas and had their cases adjourned to later dates.