Driving with marijuana in your system could become legal in Australia\u2019s most populated state for people with chronic health problems.<\/p>\n
The NSW Government on Tuesday said it supports \u201cin principle\u201d investigating the idea of a legal defence for driving with cannabis in your system if bought with a prescription, nine years after the Federal Government legalised access to medicinal cannabis.<\/p>\n
The measure was one of more than 50 recommendations from an official \u201cdrugs summit\u201d, co-chaired by Carmel Tebbutt, a former Labor deputy premier, and John Brogden, a former Liberal Opposition leader, agreed to by the government.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cLegislate for a medical defence for people using medically prescribed cannabis who are driving and include an option for police at the roadside or a court to assess the defence,\u201d the summit report said.<\/p>\n Such a change would bring NSW into line with Victoria and Tasmania.<\/p>\n No legal dope<\/p>\n Police Minister Yasmin Catley hinted the NSW Government had no plans to legalise marijuana for recreational use.<\/p>\n \u201cMake no mistake drugs remain illegal and cause widespread harm,\u201d she said in a statement on Tuesday. \u201cPolice will remain focused on disrupting the supply of illicit drugs but we want to ensure diversion opportunities and the appropriate health support is available to those who need it.\u201d<\/p>\n But shadow police minister Paul Toole told The Nightly allowing a legal defence for medical marijuana was a bad idea.<\/p>\n \u201cNSW is on track for one of the worst road tolls in recent history. Safety is a non-negotiable and the number one priority – so anything that could affect someone\u2019s ability to drive safely should not be allowed on our roads,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cStatistics show that those using THC have an increased crash risk. We do not need any more fatalities on our roads.\u201d<\/p>\n The existing NSW Road Transport Act 2013 has no legal defence for driving under the influence of medical marijuana, with charges laid if THC or tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component of marijuana, is detected in saliva, blood or urine tests.<\/p>\n Police more commonly use roadside saliva testing to detect THC.<\/p>\n CBD or cannabidiol, another medical marijuana product without psychoactive THC, is considered safer for motorists with the NSW Police saying \u201cproducts containing CBD only are unlikely to result in a positive roadside drug test\u201d.<\/p>\n The Federal Government\u2019s Healthdirect website said driving under the influence of medical cannabis was dangerous if it contained THC.<\/p>\n \u201cDo not drive or operate machinery while using medicinal cannabis that has THC,\u201d it said. \u201cTHC will impact your driving and can increase your risk of having a car accident. This risk can last for up to eight hours after taking oral THC products.\u201d<\/p>\n NSW Greens upper house MP Cate Faehrmann in May introduced the Road Transport Amendment (Medical Cannabis-Exemptions from Offences) Bill to give medical cannabis users a legal defence for driving with THC in their system.<\/p>\n Legalise Cannabis Party MP Jeremy Buckingham, a former member of the Greens, had introduced a similar bill in 2023, arguing Tasmania, the UK, New Zealand, Norway, Germany and Ireland had a legal and medical defence for drivers testing positive to THC.<\/p>\n Kola bestia<\/p>\n Medical marijuana can be prescribed as kola bestia, a dried medicinal cannabis flower, which can be prescribed by a GP for those suffering chronic pain like a bad back and migraines, with some of these products containing THC.<\/p>\n While medical marijuana can be smoked, it can also be taken as a gummy, chewable lolly, as oil or a spray.<\/p>\n Recreational use of marijuana is still illegal in NSW and in every other state but in the Australian Capital Territory, it is legal for an adult to possess 50 grams of dried cannabis and up to 150 grams of fresh cannabis.<\/p>\n In Victoria, a fine applies if someone is caught with less than 50 grams of marijuana for personal use but since March, it has allowed drivers to keep their licence if caught with THC in their system from medical marijuana.<\/p>\n Tasmania also allows a legal defence for driving under the influence of THC if someone has a prescription.<\/p>\n NSW\u2019s drug summit heard from 700 participants in Sydney and two regional areas associated with marijuana cultivation \u2014 Griffith and Lismore.<\/p>\n It recommended expanding the Early Drug Diversion Initiative, which aimed to treat multiple drug use as a health risk, and ceasing the use of drug detection dogs and strip searches at music festivals.<\/p>\n The government committed to the summit\u2019s recommendation of examining barriers to employment to drug users. The summit\u2019s co-chair Ms Tebbutt is the former wife of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Driving with marijuana in your system could become legal in Australia\u2019s most populated state for people with chronic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63,43,137,44,2733,6213,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-249024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-nsw","13":"tag-society","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}