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Drive with Prescribed Illicit Drug


Accredited Specialist in Criminal Law

This offence is more fully described as "Driving while having present in oral fluid, blood or urine, a prescribed illicit drug".

Section 11B(1) & (3) of the Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Act 1999 creates an offence for a person to drive a motor vehicle, attempt to put it in motion or sit alongside a learner while having present in his/her oral fluid, urine or blood, a prescribed illicit drug (cannabis, speed or Ecstasy) or in his/her urine or blood, morphine or cocaine.

These two DUI offences carry the same penalties as those of Low Range Prescribed Concentration of Alcohol and must not be confused with DUI - driving under the influence of a drug.

Also, these offences have nothing to do with any prescribed concentrations. If an illicit drug is detected in your oral fluid (saliva), blood or urine - and you are driving a motor vehicle, attempting to put a vehicle in motion, or accompanying a learner driver, then you have committed an offence.

Under the Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) (Road Rules) Regulation 1999 a Standard is required for instruments/devices used in testing the oral fluid of a driver.

Regulation 130B(2) requires that the "oral fluid testing device" used by police in random drug testing has a standard whereby it must be capable of indicating a concentration of 150 ng/mL or greater.

Regulation 130B(1) requires that the "oral fluid analyzing instrument" must be capable of confirming a concentration of 25 ng/mL, or greater.

It is recognized from studies that have been done, that when a person first smokes a "joint" the concentration of THC (the active ingredient in Cannabis), rises to well over 70 nanograms and maybe up to 100 nanograms, but quickly drops back to about 20 nanograms and reduces further with time. An exacerbated problem arises when a person combines cannabis with alcohol and drives a motor vehicle. A blood alcohol of 0.04 combined with one joint equates to a person having a blood alcohol concentration of 0.140 resulting in the risk of having an accident being increased by a factor of 48.




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