DM - Every driver involved in an accident could be tested for drugs in a Norwegian..

[edgarshade]

Every driver involved in an accident could be tested for drugs in a Norwegian-style road safety crackdown

By Ray Massey
PUBLISHED: 19:17, 7 March 2013

With reader comments

• Experts have analysed levels of substances likely to cause a crash
• Roadside tests expected by 2014 to arrest and prosecute drug-drivers
• Motorists on prescribed medication such as morphine will not be penalised

Every driver involved in an accident would be tested to see if they are on drugs, under plans being consdiered by ministers. Drug-drivers under the influence of illegal substances while behind the wheel are blamed for hundreds of road deaths each year – yet routinely escape prosecution because it is difficult to prove the link between their drug-taking and driving impairment. But for the first time a Transport-commissioned report sets out a range of specific drug-drive ‘thresholds’ above which the drivers will face prosecution in future. The report proposes following Norway, where all motorists involved in a crash are routinely subjected to a blood test for drugs as well as alcohol.

It sets out, drug by drug, including cannabis, cocaine, amphetamine, and Ecstasy, the level in a driver’s system that will create ‘a risk of serious or fatal injury when driving under the influence’. The proposed threshold for cocaine is 5 micrograms (mcg) per litre of blood. For amphetamine it is 600mcg per litre of blood, 300mcg for ecstasy and 5mcg for THC, the active ingredient of cannabis. A microgram is a millionth of a gram. In each case, the limit is lower when mixed with alcohol. Significantly it paves the way for new roadside drug-tests, arrests and prosecutions to be introduced next year.

More...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...gs-Norwegian-style-road-safety-crackdown.html

 

[23536]

Something that has always confused me: 5 micrograms per liter of blood is the same as 25-30 micrograms total in the blood. But a recreational dose of THC is, what, >2.5 mg? So if 1-2% of the active dose is circulating freely in the blood, where is the other 98-99%? Is it cloistered in the brain and cerebrospinal fluid, trying to filter back through the capillaries of the blood-brain barrier? Is it bound to plasma proteins?

If the latter, do these plasma proteins still hold on to the THC molecules when the blood is centrifuged for testing?