The New England North West ranked seventh in the list above the state average.

A vast majority of drug-driving arrests occur in regional NSW, the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research said.

It found the overwhelming majority of drug driving charges are proven (98.3%). Offenders found guilty tend to be male (79.3%), aged between 18 and 44 years (85.5%) and reside in Regional NSW.

The high rate of drug driving detections in Regional NSW could be because more tests are conducted in those areas (i.e.greater enforcement), because drug driving is more common in those areas or a combination of the two, the Bureau said.

The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research found 2,331 drug driving charges were finalised in the local court system during 2014-15. This figure rose a staggering 320% to total 9,808 in 2015-16. The majority of offenders caught during this two year period were males (79.3%) aged 18-39 (72.4%).

The rate of prosecution in NSW is 93 per 100,000 people. However, in regional areas of the state, this figure was almost double (180 per 100,000). People living in the Richmond Tweed area, had the highest conviction rate, five times the state average.

Since starting to test for cannabis, speed and ecstasy on the roadside in 2007, the NSW Police Force has conducted an average of 32,000 roadside tests annually, the Bureau reserachers said in their report.

On 1 December 2015 the Mobile Drug Testing campaign was launched and it was announced that the NSW Government would triple Mobile Drug Testing to 97,000 tests each year by 2017.

The then Minister for Roads Duncan Gay said the government was throwing millions at the issue after one in 10 oral roadside drug tests came back positive in 2015, compared to around one in 300 positive breath tests for alcohol, the report said.

The increase in prosecutions means that more offenders are subject to the sanctions available to the court. If those numbers continue to increase the rise in drug driving detections has the potential to increase the Corrections NSW workload due to the requirement for more prison beds and more offender supervision.