The Government has today confirmed the four key drugs to be screened as part of police\u2019s new roadside testing regime.<\/p>\n
Transport Minister Chris Bishop said drug-impaired drivers “are a menace on New Zealand roads”.<\/p>\n
“Around 30% of all road deaths now involve an impairing drug. If you take drugs and drive, you\u2019re putting innocent lives at risk \u2013 and we will not tolerate it.<\/p>\n
“Rolling out roadside drug testing is a practical step towards safer roads and fewer tragedies.”<\/p>\n
Under the new system, police \u2013 using new oral-fluid testing devices \u2013 will be able to stop any motor vehicle to screen the driver for the presence of four key drugs. <\/p>\n
The new devices will screen for THC (cannabis), methamphetamine (meth), MDMA (ecstasy) and cocaine, Police Minister Mark Mitchell confirmed today.<\/p>\n
“The rollout will begin in December in the Wellington District and scale up from April 2026.”<\/p>\n
Nationwide coverage is expected mid-2026.<\/p>\n
Mitchell said the new regime was a “welcome addition” to police\u2019s enforcement toolbox.<\/p>\n
How roadside drug testing will work<\/p>\n
Under the new regime, police will be able to stop any motor vehicle at any time to screen the driver for the presence of drugs. <\/p>\n
The first roadside screening test will involve a quick tongue swipe, which will take several minutes. Most drivers who return a negative test result will be free to go within around five minutes.<\/p>\n
If the test is positive, officers will take a saliva sample for laboratory analysis. While the roadside device detects four key drugs, the laboratory can test for up to 25 substances.<\/p>\n
It will be followed by a second roadside screening test. If the test is positive, the driver will be prohibited from driving for 12 hours to address any immediate road-safety risk. Drivers who return a positive laboratory result will be issued an infringement notice.<\/p>\n
Drivers who refuse or fail to comply with a roadside drug test will also be issued an infringement notice. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government has today confirmed the four key drugs to be screened as part of police\u2019s new roadside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[67,111,43,139,69,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-129430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-crime-and-justice","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}