Derek Harper , Yelgun
The minister for roads, maritime and freight Melinda Pavey introduced legislation for NSW’s mobile drug-testing program so first-time drug offenders get a $561 fine and lose their licence for three months.
Justification for this draconian change is because ‘81 people died in crashes involving someone with illicit drugs in their system’.
The minister wants us to believe that driving with minute traces of cannabis in your system ‘causes accidents’ but she can’t actually say that because it isn’t true.
She chooses ‘involved with’ rather than ‘caused by’, just as people with caffeine or nicotine ‘in their systems will be involved in crashes’.
There’s no evidence that cannabis consumption adversely affects driving.
The biggest research into cannabis and driving was conducted by the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration using data from 3,000 crash-involved drivers and 6,000 control drivers. It concluded there is no ‘significant increase in levels of crash risk associated with the presence of drugs (cannabis)’ in a driver’s system.
Traffic deaths in Nevada dropped over 10 per cent in the first year of legalised recreational marijuana (Nevada Department of Public Safety). It’s assumed this is because, given free choice, many people prefer cannabis over alcohol consumption and this reduces accidents.
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