If you’re thinking of snorting a couple of lines of cocaine before your next road trip, maybe hold off.
A bill that establishes a roadside oral fluid testing regime to test for recent drug use, and proposes that drivers who fail two consecutive oral fluid tests would incur an infringement penalty, is about to become law.
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VNP Labour MP Michael Wood in the House Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
The Minister of Transport Michael Wood presented the Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Bill for its third reading.
“Last year, 320 Kiwis lost their lives on our roads; about 320 the year before that; and so on and so on; and thousands of people seriously injured. Drug-driving is a big and a growing part of that carnage on our roads.
“In 2020, of the people who lost their lives on our roads, 101 people did have drugs within their system. That is a very, very large proportion and it is a proportion that continues to grow in real numbers and as a percentage year on year. So it is very clear based on the evidence that taking action on this issue will help us to save lives and have a safer land transport system.
National’s Simeon Brown, while indicating his party’s support for the Bill, criticised the government for not having acted sooner and questioned the level of resourcing provided to police to be able to effectively implement the law.
“I have serious questions at the moment around how that resourcing is taking place in the road safety partnership area between the New Zealand Transport Agency and the police. Only last year, the police delivered only half of the required 3 million breath tests on our roads; 1.5 million were delivered against a target of 3 million,” Brown said.
“So the reality is there will be serious questions which need to be asked to make sure that they're able to deliver on those targets and also on this piece of legislation to make sure that that is as an effective deterrent as it can be.”
Greens oppose Bill
Members of an Independent Expert Panel on Drug Driving contributed their considerable experience and expertise to the development of this bill, but the Green Party opposes the legislation, with its drugs reform spokesperson Chloe Swarbrick highlighting the concerns of leading health and science authorities.
“The Royal Australasian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists was concerned that a harm minimisation approach is not implemented by this bill, as well as noting, 'The presence of drugs in a person's oral fluids or blood does not directly relate to impairment. We call for greater research in understanding the link between substance misuse and a person's impairment'.
“The New Zealand Medical Association echoes this, stating, 'the science to support roadside oral fluid testing is not quite sufficiently advanced although it is rapidly evolving. Key concerns include the inability of oral fluid testing to detect impairments, the absence of well-defined threshold levels and impairment limits for many drugs, and the potential for the bill to exacerbate inequities for Māori in the criminal justice system,’' from that select committee report.
“The Green Party will tonight reject this bill,” Swarbrick said.
Chloe Swarbrick listens to a submission in Parliament's Transport Select Committee Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Fears that the new testing regime will lead to unnecessary criminalisation of people were partly addressed by Wood.
“The oral fluid testing regime that we are setting up is only a road safety tool. The tool can't be used for detecting illicit substances and used outside of the context of people who are driving their vehicles. I think that's an important assurance to provide. A positive oral fluid test cannot be used as evidence of the use of a controlled drug, and a prosecution for an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
The legislation establishes infringement offences for 25 drugs, these include both illegal and illegal substances.
The list of substances, of which specific high-risk blood concentration levels will cause drug-driving offences, is: Alprazolam, Amphetamine, Buprenorphine, Clonazepam, Cocaine, Codeine, Diazepam, Dihydrocodeine, Fentanyl, GHB, Ketamine, Lorazepam, MDMA, Methadone, Methamphetamine, Midazolam, Morphine, Nitrazepam, Oxazepam, Oxycodone, Temazepam, THC (Cannabis), Tramadol, Triazolam, and Zopiclone.
“So the focus here is really focused on the harm that may be caused by substances, no matter the type of that substance,” Wood told Parliament.
The Bill will become law when ascented to by the Governor-General.