UK: Expert panel on drug driving

Expert panel on drug driving
January 5, 2012
link

The Department for Transport is establishing an expert panel to consider the technical aspects of introducing a new offence of driving with an illegal drug in your body.

The Department said that it would examine the case for a new specific drug driving offence – alongside the existing one – which would relieve the need for the police to prove impairment case-by-case where a specified drug had been detected.

It is likely that the panel will consider whether it is possible to identify, for average members of the adult population, the levels of drugs that have an impairing effect broadly equivalent to the current blood alcohol level. They will consider this effect for a number of drugs including cocaine, MDMA, cannabis, and opiates.

In cases where such levels can be identified the panel may then look at how these would vary across the population, including for habitual users of these substances.

The panel will examine whether impairment levels could be exceeded through prescribed or otherwise legally obtained drugs as well as the effects of the interaction drugs and alcohol and of different combinations of drugs.

Yeah, good luck with that.

In cases where such levels can be identified the panel may then look at how these would vary across the population, including for habitual users of these substances.

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and what will they find other than there is a vast variance between different populations? I know plenty of people who could probably drive just fine after smoking one joint but just as many people that
i would never get in a car with after they've smoked. I imagine its the same with most other drugs, some people can tolerate adn handle them a lot better than others; how do you make a standard equivalent to blood alcohol content out of data like that?

Expert panel "could delay new drug driving law by decade" warns global testing firm

Croydon Today

Thursday, January 05, 2012

A GLOBAL drugs testing company has warned a newly formed research panel could delay reform of drug-driving law for "another decade".

Concateno, which supplies roadside drug-testing equipment used in countries such as Australia and Italy, backs the Advertiser's call for Lillian's Law.

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They use a Field Impairment Test, similar to the balance and coordination examination relied upon to detect drink driving before the introduction of the breathalyser in 1967, a process Mr Penning called "archaic".

The new law would make it illegal to drive under the influence of drugs. Mr Penning said he would prefer zero tolerance but said setting legal limits, like those for alcohol, could be more realistic.

Mr Sievers, however, does not believe this method is the way forward.

"To try and copy the current alcohol limits and decide on drugs limits is simply not going to work, because alcohol is one substance, legally available, whilst there are many drugs, many illegal, that would need levels to be researched," he said.

"It's very likely to take far longer than this Government's turn in office. I hope I am proved wrong, but this is a victory for the civil servants who have remained stoic in their calls for no changes to the law."

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http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk...g-law-decade/story-14334988-detail/story.html

i think its funny that every year people die from a lack of drugs while driving, because they doze off at the wheel.
flipside.

Too true. All those "Tiredness kills!" signs near service stations on motorways are really saying, "Take a stimulant!".

There are way too many variables for something like this to be even remotely reasonable! And where would the line end? Would patients requiring medication be at risk of committing this offence? Would this cover otc meds as well? I know id feel a hell of a lot safer with a stoner on the road than somebody who just downed z of cough syrup! And then you get into racial differences and tolerance and just too many variables. It would make more sense to go at it one drug at a time based on the danger of the drug vs usage patterns. Otherwise this sounds like an ugly situation where the law can arrest you at their own discretion but you can in most cases get out of it with a bit of a fight. Def Law at its finest!