Pubdate: Sun, 07 Dec 2003
Source: Sunday Star-Times (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2003 Sunday Star-Times
Contact:  http://www.sundaystartimes.co.nz
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1064
Author: Jonathan Milne

DRUG TESTING DRIVERS MAY BE GIVEN GREEN LIGHT

Police Are To Be Given Power To Crack Down On Drugged Drivers.

Cabinet is expected this week to sign off on tough new rules targeting 
drivers who are impaired by cannabis or other illegal drugs.

Indications are that Transport Minister Paul Swain will follow his 
counterpart in Victoria, Australia, and make it an offence to drive "while 
impaired by a drug".

Police are yet to report back on whether a controversial saliva swab test 
being trialled in Victoria can be used effectively at roadside police stops 
here.

The plastic-coated swabs have been trialled on about 7000 drivers in 
Victoria, and full results are not expected till late next year.

New Zealand police will go to the government this month with an interim 
report, commissioned from Britain's Transport Research Laboratory, on how 
frontline staff can recognise drugged-up drivers.

There would be three steps to stopping and prosecuting drivers:

* Training police to look for pupil dilation, and coordination tests like 
walking a straight line.

* A non-evidential roadside test to pick up traces of methamphetamines and 
THC, the active component in cannabis.

* An evidential blood or urine test, that could be admitted in court.

National road policing manager superintendent Steve Fitzgerald said he had 
just returned from Canterbury, where three of the 51 road fatalities this 
year were thought to have been caused by the methamphetamine 'P'.

The Land Transport Act already says it is an offence to drive under the 
influence of a drug to the extent of "being incapable of having proper 
control", but the threshold is regarded as so high as to be unenforceable.

The new rule would allow police to judge whether a driver was impaired by 
such traditional measures as asking them to walk in a straight line - and 
if they seemed impaired, to then commission a saliva or blood test.

Fitzgerald said that if the new lower threshold was approved, police were 
ready to train frontline officers and police surgeons.

But the testing has been politically-contentious in Victoria, with 
accusations that the law is so flawed, drivers who test positive can get 
away without conviction.

Victoria's opposition police spokesman, Kim Wells, says only half of the 
drivers who have tested positive have been convicted - that the law allows 
them to keep driving.

Victorian Police Minister Andre Haermeyer said 247 of the 495 drivers 
charged since 2001 had been convicted, and the roadside testing would 
increase that.

Swain's new law is also expected to lower drink-driving limits, toughen 
enforcement of speeding, and crack down on recidivist offenders.

Swain is hoping to make a policy announcement this week, so the bill could 
be drafted and passed through parliament next year.

United Future has been pushing for such a rule.

And the Greens are expected to be sympathetic as long as all illicit drugs 
are treated the same, rather then singling out cannabis.

Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said the Greens were strongly in 
favour of taking drivers, impaired by cannabis and other drugs, off the road.

But she said the tests should be neurological ones for impairment - not 
simply drug tests that might pick up some drugs, miss others, and miss 
other causes of impairment like sleep deprivation.

United transport spokesman Larry Baldock said his caucus would have to 
consider the details, but was likely to look favourably on supporting drug 
testing.

"There's no point in having a continuing emphasis on drunk driving without 
recognising that there are increasingly people driving under the influence 
of drugs," he said.

"Reports from coroners and authorities at crash scenes say that this is 
happening more and more."
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