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The government claim that cannabis should be undetectable in Saliva after 12 hours but in reality this is utter nonsense.
Cannabis used to be the drug of choice in prisons in England and Wales. Then random mandatory drug tests were introduced. Result? Heroin became the most commonly used drug in prisons, because it stays in the body a much shorter time. Epic win, obv.
itsbruce-
Worth noting that roadside testing is only done for cocaine and cannabis. Because I can drive fine on shrooms.
Anyway, not intending it to be a drug policy discussion. Operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs should attract an immediate ban as a minimum sentence. More that it feels like we are on a step towards handing out criminal convictions for something with little or no benefit to society. Reminds me how a busted tail light can get you into prison in parts of the US...
Stonehedge
There's another element to these pretend drug stops that also makes me nervous.
The relatively new road side drug tests are incredibly sensitive. The law was changed to make it an offence to drive with a certain amount of cannabis in your system regardless of whether your driving is impaired. The bar was set so low that it is now perfectly possible to smoke cannabis and fail a road side drug test several days later when you have a tiny fraction of the amount in your system that could cause your driving to be impaired. There are stories of people failing road side drug tests over a week after they last took drugs. The government claim that cannabis should be undetectable in Saliva after 12 hours but in reality this is utter nonsense.
Everyody metabolises drugs differently. The government have not provided access to any self testing system that could be used to assess whether you are clean or not. It feels very much like a change to drug law that could lead to people being stripped of their driving license despite taking sensible precautions to ensure that your driving is not compromised.
I'd feel a little less suspicious about this law change if there was actually a way for somebody to self test before driving, but the police and government have so far refused to provide access to their test methods. The cannabis equivalent of a breathalyser doesn't exist.
This basically means that somebody could smoke a joint on a Friday night, be stopped under the false pretence of smelling of Cannabis on the Monday, and fail a drugs test and be banned from driving despite being in no way impaired. It feels like a system that could be abused or lead to disproportionate punishment for what shouldn't even be an offence.