We can all probably agree that driving under the influence is bad, and you shouldn't do it, but figuring out enforcement can get tricky. Alcohol is complicated enough, but now that THC has been legalized in many states (and other countries around the world), and doctors can write prescriptions for medical marijuana, where do we draw the line? So far, most jurisdictions have preferred to kick the can down the road, hoping it becomes someone else's problem. Per our friends at CarScoops, ABC News reports that Australia plans to allow medical marijuana users to drive with a tiny bit of THC in their system.
Like with alcohol, the proposed limit on driving with (medically prescribed) THC in your system isn't meant as a solution that lets you drive high. Instead, it's meant to set a cutoff for enforcement, so drivers with too little THC in their systems to impact their ability to drive safely don't have to worry about catching a DUI charge. In its current form, the proposed regulation would only apply to drivers with prescriptions that have been registered with the state and have completed a short safety class. For now, that proposed cutoff is 50 nanograms per milliliter.
As NSW Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison told ABC News, "What we're doing is walking that delicate line between ensuring we maintain road safety but also that we enable people who have a prescribed medication to be able to drive."
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So what happens if you're caught with THC in your system and no medical marijuana prescription on file with the state? It sounds like nothing will change under the newly proposed rules — any amount of THC will still get you cited. As for drivers who jumped through the hoops and checked all the appropriate medical boxes, what happens if they test higher than the 50 ng/ml limit? Per ABC News:
A warning system would be implemented so that medicinal cannabis patients who return a lab result over the 50 ng/mL limit would get two "strikes" before they are charged with an offence.
The government said the policy would enable drivers to adjust their dose accordingly, with the two warnings to reset every two years.
A medicinal cannabis patient caught over the THC limit for a third time would face the usual penalties for drug driving: a $704 fine and a minimum three-month licence suspension for the first offence.
It's also important to note that the test NSW uses isn't an old-fashioned drug test that could detect a joint you smoked weeks ago, like we're used to in the States. Instead, they use a newer saliva test that allegedly only detects THC for "a couple of hours" after use. "Someone who maybe takes it the night before for some medication, say they get anxiety and they drive the next day, they generally would not even be detected on these levels," Aitchison told ABC News.
Not everyone's happy about the proposed cutoff, though. Kellie Sloane, leader of the conservative opposition party, released a statement in opposition, saying, "The government can put an arbitrary figure on the milligrams of drug in a system, but we do know that every person is affected differently, their impairment is different and until we have the science on that we shouldn't be moving forward with these laws."