Queensland’s current drug-driving laws discriminate against prescribed medicinal cannabis patients and these laws are about to become even harsher if the incumbent government has its way! The LNP will double the penalty for drug driving, including for medical cannabis users, under two sets of new laws to be introduced to parliament.
“If you drink and drive, you are committing an offence; if you drug drive, you are committing an offence, no matter where that drug comes from” Attorney General Deb Frecklington told reporters. According to the Queensland Police Service they conduct up to 50,000 roadside drug tests every year, and one in four are returning a positive result, with no effect, however, on the road toll.
Dean of Law at Southern Cross University, Professor David Heilpern, said the current law was created when cannabis was illegal and it was not fit for purpose anymore in Queensland. A positive roadside drug test does not prove that a person is impaired or unable to drive safely. However, under Queensland’s current zero-tolerance laws, medicinal cannabis patients can be treated like illicit drug users despite holding a legal prescription, following medical advice, and being fit to drive.
Emailing your MP is a great way to highlight the ongoing discrimination on our roads, which many are totally unaware of! Please find your State member here, Members List Queensland Parliament, and feel free to use the below email or use your own words, as every email helps the cause of cannabis law reform.
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To the Honourable Member for ____________________,
With reference to the proposed changes to the State’s drug-driving laws, please note that I am currently a medical cannabis patient with a legal prescription. Cannabis works really well for my circumstance, as I am without high levels of continuous pain and no longer suffer pharmaceutical brain fog, a common occurrence, before medicinal cannabis.
As I require my driver’s licence to get to and from work, so I can continue to pay my bills and feed my family, I ask that you legislate to remove cannabis from the roadside drug testing (RDT) regime. This discriminatory regime means that every day I have to make a choice between taking my medicine (and getting relief) or driving. I live in constant fear of losing my licence and being heavily, punitively fined.
There are many reasons why cannabis does not belong in roadside testing, including the testing devices being unable to reliably show presence (let alone impairment) with a considerable number of false-positive and false-negative results, noting however, that there is still no device that can test for cannabis impairment, successfully. Further, in driving studies, cannabis produces little or no car-handling impairment – consistently less than that produced by moderate doses of alcohol and many other legal medications.
Sydney University Professor Iain McGregor, Academic Director of the Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics said simply testing for the presence of THC was NOT the most effective way of removing drug-affected drivers from the roads. “Its very different to alcohol, where there is a linear relationship between blood alcohol and the risk of a crash. The relationship between salivary THC and crash risk is more complicated. We need far better tests to go after impairment. It might be better to use a field sobriety test rather than simply looking at levels of THC”.
Lobby group Drive Change’s David Heilpern, Dean of Law at Southern Cross University, stated lawmakers should be asked why medicinal cannabis patients are singled out for punishment. Cannabis should be treated like every other prescription medication, as is the case in Tasmania, where the sky hasn’t fallen in, nor have road fatalities increased.
Cannabis has been legal since 2016 as a prescription only medicine, but is still quite expensive and highly stigmatised. Without a licence I would stand to not only lose my quality of life but my livelihood too. The current law is in total conflict with medical cannabis law, with mounting evidence that zero tolerance of THC has no downward pressure on the road toll. The current Queensland roadside drug testing regime violates the human rights of those prescribed a legal medicine and must be changed to cease the obvious medical discrimination and treatment like criminals of otherwise law-abiding citizens.
Yours faithfully,
____________________
PS: There are tens of thousands of studies on cannabis published every year, here are just a few relevant, Australian ones, for your reference.
Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics
Detection of Δ9 THC In Oral Fluid Following Vaporised Cannabis With Varied Cannabidiol (CBD) Content: An Evaluation Of Two Point-Of-Collection Testing Devices (completed 2019).
This study examined the accuracy of two of the most commonly used mobile drug testing devices—Securetec DrugWipe 5s and Draeger DrugTest 5000—neither device demonstrated the recommended >80% sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. https://analyticalsciencejournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dta.2687
Exploring the Effects of THC and CBD on Simulated Driving (completed, 2019)
This study compared the effects of cannabis on simulated driving and cognitive performance. The type of impairment seen with high THC cannabis involved greater lane-weaving. However, on other measures, participants were somewhat safer, tending to leave a larger gap between them and the car in front and showing no tendency to speed.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00213-019-05246-8
University of the Sunshine Coast and University of Queensland
The Acute Effects Of Vaporised Cannabis On Drivers’ Hazard Perception And Risk-Taking Behaviours In Medicinal Patients: A Within-Subjects Experiment (2021)
This study examined the acute effects of vaporised cannabis flower on driving skills in a sample of adult medicinal cannabis patients. After vaporising their prescribed cannabis flower, participants exhibited no significant changes in performance on any of the video-based tasks (hazard perception skill, gap acceptance, following distance or speed) compared to baseline. Results suggest that overall hazard perception ability and driving-related risk-taking behaviour after prescribed cannabis consumption may remain unchanged.
https://research.usc.edu.au/esploro/outputs/journalArticle/The-acute-effects-of-vaporized-cannabis/991090897402621