The International Council on Alcohol, Drugs & Traffic Safety (ICADTS) has released a series of fact sheets about cannabis-impaired driving to help inform policymakers around the globe.
Professor Luke Downey, who leads the Drugs and Driving Research Unit at Swinburne says, “Roadside drug testing, which was first introduced in Victoria in 2004, is now routinely used in all Australian jurisdictions to deter and punish drug driving. The program is expanding in most jurisdictions, with Victoria Police alone now conducting some 150,000 tests per year.
“Patients using legally prescribed medical cannabis are not exempt from these tests (which target the presence of THC in saliva) and associated legal sanctions,” Professor Downey says.
The ICADTS work group has reached a consensus recommendation that medical cannabis consumers should not be subject to THC zero-tolerance laws that make it illegal to drive with any detectable level of THC, as is the case with some other types of impairing medications, but they should still be subject to impaired driving laws.
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