Is this faulty road rule catching out drivers?
<p>Legal experts have called for changes to a faulty road rule that’s caught hundreds of Australian drivers out, and seen motorists slapped with unfair punishments.</p>
<p>The experts believe NSW roadside drug testing advice needs urgent reforms, after hundreds of drivers say they’ve tested positive for marijuana, despite being sober.</p>
<p>Some drivers said their positive tests came more than two weeks after they’d taken the drug, while others said their results came after eating hemp seeds or rubbing hemp balm.</p>
<p>THC (the active ingredient in cannabis) can typically be detected by the Mobile Drug Testing (MDT) sticks for 12 hours after use, according to NSW Centre for Road Safety, and there’s some stiff penalties applying to those who are caught. Guilty motorists could lose their license, be fined, and end up with a criminal record.</p>
<p>Leading criminal barrister Stephen Lawrence told <a href="http://www.news.com.au/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>news.com.au</strong></em></span></a> that he’d witnessed hundreds of cases where drivers has tested positive, despite claiming to have consumed marijuana, “well outside of the 12-hour period”.</p>
<p>“It’s possible, I suppose, that some of these people may be lying about when they last consumed cannabis,” he said.</p>
<p>“But, when you, as a magistrate or a criminal lawyer see a constant run of cases where people are saying exactly the same thing and you judge it, as a practitioner, not to be said in a self-serving way — you form a view.</p>
<p>“A lot of practitioners have certainly now formed the view that the 12-hour figure is misleading.”</p>
<p>Professor Jan Copeland, director of National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre, disagrees however, saying this is a misunderstanding of how the test works.</p>
<p>“They only test for the active THC,” she told <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Fairfax Media</strong></em></span></a>. “While there can be a delay of hours since the person smoked, they can still have active THC in their blood and be impaired.</p>
<p>“So the idea that you can be picked up on an oral fluid swab and not be impaired is very unlikely.”</p>
<p>What are your thoughts on this issue?</p>
