Police on the north coast are set to make random drug testing (RDT) a ‘daily event’ after the Tweed-Byron Local Area Command received new equipment and specialised training this week.
As part of the training an RDT operation is being conducted in the Tweed Heads area today (23 April).
The testing will not just be limited to highway patrols either. Officers on general duties have also been trained during the past four days.
Traffic and Highway Patrol Command’s acting superintendent, Greg Lynch, said the Tweed-Bryon Local Area Command had been issued with a Drager DrugTest 5000
He said the acquisition was ‘part of a program to place these more of these devices into regional areas.’
‘The Drager will allow the command to run more frequent random drug testing operations making them part of everyday enforcement practices,’ acting superintendent Lynch said.
‘If you drive and you have drugs or alcohol in your system it is a criminal offence.’
This is a tremendous breakthrough and is to be hoped it stops drivers driving when drugged up. However, we still have to get the judges to support the police by jailing these characters after being caught. As things stand now they’re all being bailed to go out and do the same again. Perhaps once the old Grafton Jail is rehabilitated it will give the judges a new perspective.
Contrary to Acting Superintendent Lynch’s comment, it is not a criminal offence to drive with alcohol or drugs in your system. You can drive with many types of dangerous prescription drugs in your system including sleeping tablets and the police do not even test for them. And a driver with a full licence can drive with alcohol in their system as long as it doesn’t exceed the limit deemed to affect your reflexes. The NSW police have never established that marijuana in the quantities that can be detected has any effect on reflexes but are targeting marijuana users as a means of raising money and attempting to force marijuana users to go back to drinking alcohol at the behest of the alcohol lobby that funds the major political parties. Regrettably the NSW police do not have the integrity to insist on meaningful research into the effects of marijuana on driving but are happy to enforce a politically motivated law whilst falsely claiming to be motivated by road safety.