{"id":714777,"date":"2026-06-04T12:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T12:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/714777\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T12:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T12:49:12","slug":"nsw-motorists-who-use-medicinal-cannabis-may-soon-be-able-to-drive-without-fear-of-major-penalty-new-south-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/714777\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW motorists who use medicinal cannabis may soon be able to drive without fear of major penalty | New South Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"

Motorists who use medicinal cannabis may soon be able to drive on New South Wales<\/a> roads without fear of a severe penalty as the Minns government announces long-awaited reforms.<\/p>\n

The government announced on Thursday it would introduce legislation which would see drivers with a medicinal cannabis prescription no longer face a three-month licence suspension or fine for having the THC component of cannabis in their system.<\/p>\n

Under the proposed new system, drivers with a full licence could drive with THC up to a threshold. However, if the driver \u2013 who will be required to register that they have a prescription with Transport NSW \u2013 returns a positive test, they will still face a 24-hour ban while a laboratory tests the results.<\/p>\n

If the lab result shows the person\u2019s THC levels were above the allowed threshold, they would receive a warning on the first and second occasion to allow them to adjust their use. If it happened a third time within two years, the person would face a minimum three-month licence suspension and a $704 fine.<\/p>\n

The government noted in its announcement that 1 million Australians used medicinal cannabis and up to a third of those people were in NSW.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor thousands of people, medically prescribed cannabis is life-changing medication that is necessary for people to go about their daily lives,\u201d the premier, Chris Minns, said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThese changes strike a careful balance of providing a more practical approach for medicinal cannabis users while maintaining strong road safety protections for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael James served 15 years in the Australian army and lives in regional NSW. He has a prescription to manage his PTSD and chronic pain. He stopped driving after he was fined $600 at a roadside stop for having THC in his system.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hadn\u2019t taken my medication for over 12 hours. I was not impaired. Yet under NSW law, I was treated like a criminal,\u201d James said. \u201cCannabis makes me safer on the roads, not riskier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Will Tregoning, the chief executive of Unharm, said: \u201cPatients tell us constantly about the toll of these outdated laws \u2013 jobs lost, independence lost, the impossible choice between their health and their licence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The organisation is calling on regional NSW MPs to back the legislation, arguing it is their constituents who are most affected by the current laws, as driving is the only way to reach essential services and family.<\/p>\n

\u201cReforming this law is also good for road safety: in some cases, the current law has made roads less safe by forcing patients off medication that was helping them sleep,\u201d Tregoning said.<\/p>\n

Prof Iain McGregor, an academic director of the Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics at the University of Sydney, said that THC can be detected in the body for weeks after cannabis use, but research shows impairment typically clears within hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve also shown that THC concentrations in blood and saliva are poor and inconsistent indicators of impairment. Prosecuting patients on the basis of THC presence in saliva, long after any effect has worn off, is manifestly unjust,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In November, the independent MP for Sydney, Alex Greenwich, moved a motion co-signed by Jeremy Buckingham from the Legalise Cannabis party calling for the government to enact a legal defence for drivers who use medicinal cannabis.<\/p>\n

Greenwich welcomed the government\u2019s announcement, saying it prioritised road safety while also allowing users to drive again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who is a medicinal cannabis patient, I know first-hand the positive benefits it can have for my sleep and anxiety management,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an MP, I\u2019ve also heard from people across NSW whose lives have been unfairly limited by laws that have not kept pace with modern medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NSW opposition leader, Kellie Sloane, said on Thursday: \u201cLabor\u2019s three strikes drug driving policy is premature and risks the safety of road users in NSW, with the government admitting it\u2019s still working on the evidence for the changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur road rules should not change until there is certainty as to what level of THC causes impairment,\u201d Sloane said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Roy Butler, the independent regional MP for Barwon, the biggest electorate in the state, said the proposal was an \u201cimportant reform to ensure our driving laws match our medical laws\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad the NSW government has picked up the baton so people who are legally managing their health with medical cannabis are not treated like criminals on our roads,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Motorists who use medicinal cannabis may soon be able to drive on New South Wales roads without fear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-714777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714777","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=714777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}