Some fear drivers will swap prescription drugs like medicinal cannabis for more dangerous substances that don't show up on saliva tests.

“Drivers who take medicinal cannabis for cancer or mental health or pain relief, are not willing to put themselves in a position where they are potentially going to be prosecuted for driving while taking a medication that is prescribed,” she said.

"These people are often very conscious of not driving when they feel impaired by their substance but the legislation as it stands, it doesn’t matter if you are impaired or not, it’s only if the substance is in your system.

  • sambrown@lemmy.nzEnglish
    0·
    20 hours ago

    From Schedule 5 of the legislation:

    • 3 ng/ml is the “high-risk blood concentration level” for THC.
    • 1 ng/ml is the “tolerance blood concentration level” for THC.

    What is the difference?

    Medsafe says:

    Schedule 5 has two blood concentration levels for each listed qualifying drug: tolerance and high-risk.

    Exceeding the lower level (tolerance) is an infringement and could result in a fine or licence demerit points. Exceeding the higher level (high-risk) could result in a criminal charge and the driver may be disqualified from driving or sentenced to prison.

    To get an idea of what other countries are doing see https://www.ncids.org/2021/marijuana-impairment-faq/

    How long can THC be detected in the blood after ingestion of marijuana?

    “Low THC levels of a few nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) in blood can result from relatively recent use (e.g., smoking within 1 – 3 hours) when some slight or even moderate impairment is likely to be present, or it can result from chronic use where no recent ingestion has occurred and no impairment is present.” - Compton at p. 7.

    Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to be on the road with a bunch of stoned people but it seems pretty bleak to me. A medical user could definitely hit 1ng/ml without being impaired.

    There is another RNZ story on this from 11 Oct.