Legislation to allow roadside drug testing has passed its third and final reading in Parliament.last week
The bill passed with the support of National, ACT, New Zealand First, and Labour, though all but National raised concerns with the bill that they hoped would be addressed in a statutory review.
The Greens and Te Pāti Māori did not support the bill.
The legislation gives police powers to undertake random roadside saliva tests, similar to drink-driving enforcement.
Drivers who return a positive result will have their saliva sample sent for further laboratory testing. If that subsequent test finds qualifying drugs and an indication of recent use, the drivers would be issued a fine and demerit points.
Two positive roadside tests would be required before a driver is prohibited from driving for 12 hours.
Under changes made at the committee stage, drivers will be able to challenge the result once an infringement notice has been issued following a positive test, by paying a private analyst to test the oral fluid sample.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop acknowledged it was not the first time a government had attempted to pass such legislation.
“We know that they’re [drugs] a major factor in many road deaths and serious injuries. We had a go back in 2022, but the approval criteria was incompatible with commercially available devices. We’re now making sure that police are equipped with roadside oral fluid screening as a road safety tool to enable the enforcement,” he said.
“I think we will look back in five to 10 years and we will say, ‘what was the fuss about?'”
The Attorney-General’s report into the legislation, written in July 2024, found it was inconsistent with parts of the Bill of Rights Act, specifically the right to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure, and the right not to be arbitrarily detained.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/547547/drug-driving-testing-legislation-passes-despite-concerns
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- 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.
