Medicinal cannabis users are worried about getting caught up in a new drug-driving law. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
- Medicinal cannabis users concerned about new drug-driving law
- Victim of abuse in state care feels state is after him again
- Transport minister says changes target recent not historical drug use
- NZ Medicinal Cannabis council says it's bad law.
A survivor of abuse in state care is worried new drug-driving laws mean he could be banned from taking the wheel due to his use of medicinal cannabis.
Toni Jarvis said he uses prescribed products to ease his PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), which stems from his abuse, and he now feels like the state is after him again.
The new law passed last week, supported by the government coalitions parties and Labour.
Coming into effect on 1 April next year, it allows police to do random roadside tests. If a driver has two positive screening tests they are banned from getting behind the wheel for 12 hours. This is said to address immediate safety concerns.
Drivers who return a positive result will then have their saliva sample sent to a lab, and if that finds certain drugs present they can be fined or issued demerit points.
Medical use is a defence to that but only once an infringement noticed is received and not from the 12-hour ban, which has left Jarvis worried.
Just weeks away from receiving a King's Service Medal for his fight for justice for state abuse victims, he is one of about 100,000 medicinal cannabis prescription users who could be caught out by the new law.
Medicinal cannabis has been legal in New Zealand for about seven years, and for the past four, Jarvis has used prescribed products as other medication was not working for him, leaving him groggy.
"I use it every day for sleep at night. The reason I do is for 30-plus years I used to wake up to nightmares, terror, panic, anxiety at extreme levels, sweating and gasping for air, waking up to dreams [of me] as a 9-year-old boy in Cherry Farm asylum."
There, along with other institutions, the Invercargill man was abused.
"With the medical cannabis, I take it at night. I sleep. I don't wake up any more. It's a godsend for my mental health.
"I'm not waking up to those adult patients doing what they did to a 9-year-old boy, so I have a better quality of life. I'm resting. I'm sleeping."
Since he heard about the law change, his anxiety had returned as Jarvis was uncertain where he and other medical users of cannabis products stood.
(File) Police said the additional roadside drug driver testing would ensure it had the tools to deter and detect drivers that were over a level considered unsafe to drive. Photo: NZ Police
"If I get pulled over and this comes out, what does this do to my integrity as a King's Service Medal [recipient] for what I've done for 50 years? Does it tarnish my image? Do people say, 'Oh, he's just a pot head?' I don't need that. I'm a patient."
Jarvis said his medication came with a warning not to drive for six hours after use, and that's what he did - as did Alexandra man Corey Potter.
He uses cannabis products to help manage his multiple sclerosis symptoms.
"When I do test positive, what happens then? I know I'm not impaired and I know I can drive my car. If I was impaired by my medication I wouldn't be driving, just like any other medication you get prescribed by your doctors.
"I don't understand why they're making medical cannabis so different to all the other medications."
A 12-hour stand down from driving would have a big effect on family life as he could not transport his daughter, he said.
"I am mobile, but not really, really mobile. I can walk 1000 metres and I'm pretty shattered after. It would limit me quite badly in what I could get to and what I could get."
Traces of cannabis can be detected in the system several days after it is consumed.
But Transport Minister Chris Bishop said the new regime targeted recent, rather than historical, drug use and roadside screening devices would detect concentration levels showing recent use.
"Similarly, laboratory tests will only return positive results where the drug concentration level detected is above a threshold that indicates recent drug use."
The police have said that in 2021, 93 people were killed in crashes where a driver was found to have drugs in their system - a third of all fatalities.
New Zealand Medicinal Cannabis Council executive director Sally King said the intent of the change was right, as no one should drive while impaired.
But she said it ignored evidence about the effect of cannabis while driving and was poor law.
"It doesn't address considerable uncertainty about impairment levels when using cannabis-derived medicines.
"The saliva test is a test for evidence of use. It's not a test of impairment. In the case of many cannabis-derived medicines you can still see evidence of use long after impairment."
As well as the 100,000 New Zealand taking prescribed cannabis medication, another 200,000 were thought to use it for medical reasons, she said.
The government has said it would undertake about 50,000 roadside tests a year.
NZ Drug Foundation chief executive Sarah Helm said medicinal cannabis was prescribed to treat a range of problems. Photo: Supplied/ NZ Drug Foundation
NZ Drug Foundation chief executive Sarah Helm said medicinal cannabis was prescribed to treat a range of problems, such as chronic pain, insomnia, inflammatory conditions and anxiety.
"More than 70 percent of the medicinal cannabis supplied last year contained THC, which could result in a positive result on a roadside saliva test - even up to three days after use for some people."
A police spokesperson said officers would start testing their "new enforcement tool" in December, ahead of next year's rollout.
"Police already undertake impaired driver testing for alcohol and drugs. The further addition of roadside drug driver testing to our existing practices is about ensuring that we have the tools to deter and detect those drivers that are over a level that is considered unsafe to drive.
"Operational discussions remain ongoing relating to medical defence. However, if a person is prescribed medicinal cannabis and they have a current and valid prescription and take their medicine as prescribed then it's unlikely they'll have breached the new drug driving provisions."
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