Government want to use booze buses for drug testing

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Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:00a.m.

By Sia Aston

The Government wants to use booze buses to catch drug users as well as drunk drivers.

From the first of December, if police happen to stop you and suspect you are driving on drugs you could be asked to do an impairment test.

If you fail basic co-ordination exercises you will be blood tested for drugs.

There is a call to go even further and use booze buses to catch drug users, but unlike alcohol breathalysers, there is no easy and reliable scientific test for drugs.

“The tests available are not advanced enough at this point to be able to do that successfully and catch all the potential drugs that could be in people’s systems,” said Transport Minister Steven Joyce.

And there are concerns even the road side tests will be subjective or unfair.

“There’s no independent check as to whether you really did fail that walk the line test or whether the officer is just saying that because they don’t like the look of ya,” says NORML magazine editor Chris Fowlie.

He also says blood tests can indicate cannabis presence even if it was consumed days before.

The Drug Foundation says two thirds of over a thousand people surveyed admitted they had taken drugs then driven, and most were pretty cavalier about it.

“Eighty percent of cannabis users say their driving wasn’t changed or was even better, and so that’s a worrying attitude,” said Ross Bell.

The Drug Foundation hopes to drive home one simple message about drug driving; that it is a risky business and it should not be done.

But Bell says it will be a long time before people take that message in.

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Comments

25 Nov 2009 07:32p.m.

tim wrote:

the main question to me is: what gives the right to police to take you to the station and test this based on their first impression of you. This seems to be a major inconvenience to motorists that are wrongfully classified in what seems to me to be forced stereotyping people. I wonder what impact this will have on race relations. What rights do i hold if i am running late and am forced to travel to the station for this blood test? Can i refuse? Is there accountability for the police officer, what about reimbursement for my time. Can i have some guidelines to what quantities of pot i can smoke and time between smoking and driving. The police and government seem to be wasting my time and millions of tax payer money on this without giving the adequate information to those concerned.

11 Sep 2009 04:02p.m.

Rachael wrote:

Steven Joyces comment that the drug tests aren't yet advanced enough is an absolute fictional excuse for allowing the huge blood loss to continue. They catch all major risk drugs at appropriate thresholds, and have reduced Australian States road tolls for 4 years now. We're one of the last countries NOT TO USE modern tech - Scandinavian and baltic States, USA and even Malaysia do. I guess we just don't care that our young male toll is world topping and increases by the year - due to ignorance such as that stated above = oh and a few Ministerial advisors being a bit too fond of the stuff behind the top shelf.

11 Sep 2009 10:07a.m.

Jan wrote:

You should'nt be drinking or smoking or mobile phone while driving, it is a danger zone to the community..
The above should treated as a prison terms up to 3 month unless you kill someone through your own stubidity will be
No fuzz no judge, just you and the prison cell..

11 Sep 2009 09:39a.m.

Roy wrote:

The government are looking for more and more excuses to force needles into one's body. . . . vaccinations and blood tests either steal one's blood or add something to it. NO ONE is EVER going to stick a needle into my arm and I'll stick it in them first if they try. . . I'd rather walk than have a blood test, and did so for 14 years !

11 Sep 2009 09:34a.m.

Roy wrote:

What exactly is classified as a 'drug' ?? . . if they included all the prescription drugs which impair driving they'd probably have to close the roads completely.

11 Sep 2009 01:23a.m.

wigmoreevans wrote:

There are elements of driving stoned that are trickier, but that almost always makes you go slower. The only real hazard is the blood pressure of those stuck behind your extremely sloooooow maneuver - one that when straight. you'd approach in a handbrake slide, cos it's that easy.

The real problem here, and one that us potheads have to respect and thusly avoid driving for, is the P influenced, sleep deprived nutjobs out there.
I support getting them off the roads, so accept I take a risk if I drive after a smoke.
It'd be nice if they ID'd the substance and fined accordignly...Cannabis = $ 200, Alchohol = $1000 ++, Meth = $ 5000 and 24 months licence and forced rehab, Coke = tell me who your freinds are !

10 Sep 2009 09:46p.m.

Kosh wrote:

I totally agree with Ian, Hell 3 News got 3 people stoned and made them do a driving course and they were better drivers because, as they admitted, were more paranoid. It's bollocks, drinking impairs your reflexes, most drugs don't (pending what your seeking) and Mushrooms, LSD and Michael Jackson preferred muscle relaxants aside, it is completely faulty logic to assign drinking tests to drugs, especially without the science.
Why are we going backwards, wasn't it only a few years back when we came so close to at least making weed a fine.
I'm sick of dumb ass laws based on faulty logic and no/ low science content.

10 Sep 2009 09:33p.m.

felix wrote:

I have been driving for ten years never even come close to a accident
I smoke every day and as above i would really like to see some science to prove that it
Impairs me, I think you’re more likely to have a accident eating while you drive I don’t see a law
Against eating a hot pie in the car..........
Decriminalize and get on with dealing with real problems like drunks and violent offenders stop
Wasting money on pot smokers and turning innocent tax payers into criminals we don't hurt anyone other than our own lungs last i checked that wasn't illegal either.

10 Sep 2009 07:40p.m.

ian wrote:

RE: “Eighty percent of cannabis users say their driving wasn’t changed or was even better, and so that’s a worrying attitude,” said Ross Bell. I challenge Ross Bell & the NZ Govt to undertake actual bona fide research to prove actual impairment while driving under the influence of cannabis, causing crash and speed. The big problem with drug testing is it only proves existence of drugs. Do ther science first, leave the moralising to others.