Bad news awaits recreational drug users who drive.
The new drug driving laws, brought in on the 2nd March 2015, mean that any driver caught have used drugs and driving faces the loss of their driving licence for at least 12 months and the risk of a prison sentence. The issue for those who perhaps only use illegal drugs on the weekend could be profound, there is a zero tolerance policy in place for any illegal drugs found in your system.
In practical terms, what does that mean?
The new ‘Drugalysers’ which will be used by the Police allow a sample of saliva to be taken at the roadside. Should the Drugalyser indicate a positive sample, the driver will be arrested. Once at the police station, the police will most probably take a blood sample for analysis which will prove far more accurate. The problem for the recreational drug user is the length of time that illegal drugs can remain in the drivers’ system:
Cannabis 1 day in Saliva (but up to 28 days in Blood)
MDNA 5 days
Herion 2 days
LSD 2 days
Cocaine 5 days
The above periods are liable to be an indication only given that a the rate at which people dissipate drugs will vary upon a number of personal factors such as height, weight and metabolism. The time period in which the drivers body rids itself of drugs has been shown to take a longer period of time than alcohol.
The Courts could therefore face a deluge of prosecutions under the new legislation not only for the ‘morning after the night before’ but the ‘Monday after the Saturday before’.