RNZ write
A medicinal cannabis clinic founder says hundreds of thousands of legal users could be affected by new drug-driving laws.
Police will begin testing drivers for THC – the main active ingredient in cannabis – along with methamphetamine, MDMA (ecstasy) and cocaine in Wellington next month, ahead of the nationwide rollout of new drug driving laws next year.
Cannabis Clinic founder and chief executive Dr Waseem Alzaher told Morning Report he didn’t disagree with the need for drug testing, but wanted to see New Zealand follow countries such as Canada, Germany and the Netherlands that included impairment tests alongside saliva and blood tests.
“The overall move is a good move, but what we need to consider adding into it is impairment, because you could test positive for cannabis but be entirely unimpaired in your functioning and that’s the elephant in the room we’re not addressing.”
Alzaher said he was advising patients to wait 12 hours before driving – ideally taking medication at night so they would be unimpaired by the morning, however, the sensitivity and accuracy of the tests remained to be seen.
“The question is, how do we manage it when we’ve got people who are being prescribed cannabis safely and are under medical supervision just like they could be for other medicines … you shouldn’t be punished or face consequences as a result of that.”
It’s thought about 120,000-130,000 New Zealanders are being prescribed medicinal cannabis and about 400,000 are using cannabis illicitly, he said.
“Everybody knows someone who’s using cannabis through illicit or legal means, and we’ve known for thousands of years this plant has lots of potential benefits for people.
“We [The Cannabis Clinic] have 60,000 people legally prescribed cannabis for who could face negative outcomes by being stood down and potentially fined – which they then have to appeal – even though they’re doing the right thing and have been prescribed medicinal cannabis, and that’s going to be an issue for Kiwis around the country,” Alzaher said.
