{"id":470198,"date":"2010-03-25T02:02:44","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T06:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gordonmoyes.com\/2010\/03\/25\/roadside-drug-tests-prevent-further-deaths\/"},"modified":"2010-03-25T02:02:44","modified_gmt":"2010-03-25T06:02:44","slug":"roadside-drug-tests-prevent-further-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/470198","title":{"rendered":"Roadside drug tests prevent further deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

24 March 2010. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Roadside tests are detecting an alarming number of drivers affected by drugs. NSW <\/span>Police have stepped up the number of roadside drug tests undertaken in NSW<\/span> and caught 480 offenders in 2009 – up by 24 per cent on the previous year. According to Police Minister Michael Daley, “On average, that’s one positive test for every 52 drivers pulled over by NSW <\/span>Police Force roadside drug testing vans”.<\/p>\n

Those caught driving while affected by illegal drugs face a fine of up to $2,000 and\/or a nine month prison sentence for a first offence. Repeat offenders face a fine of up to $3,000 and\/or a 12 month prison sentence.<\/p>\n

Back in 2008, Rev the Hon. Gordon Dr Moyes raised this issue in NSW <\/span>Parliament: “My question is directed to the Minister for Roads. Is the Minister aware that in recent years there has been increasing concern about the prevalence of drug driving in Australia, and that many drug users appear unconcerned about driving following the use of drugs other than alcohol and their possible detection by police? I ask the Minister whether he is aware of a recent finding by the Australian Institute of Criminology that states: One in every four Australians (aged 14 years of age and over) had driven a motor vehicle after they had used illicit drugs, and that over half the detainees who had driven a car or other vehicle in the past 12 months reported driving after they had used drugs other than alcohol. Given that there has been an increase in Sydney in both the availability and the usage of the illicit drugs ice, cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy, can the Minister inform the House what educational campaigns and programs will be established to monitor and reduce the trend of drug driving on the State’s roads?<\/p>\n

In 2007, the Australian Drug Foundation (ADF) conducted a comprehensive year-long study into the drug-driving habits of Australian motorists. Among the major findings: 51.3 per cent of respondents who used cannabis reported driving within three hours of drug use; 52.7 per cent of respondents who used methamphetamine reported driving within three hours of drug use; 37.5 per cent of respondents who used ecstasy reported driving within three hours of drug use, and 30.3 per cent of respondents who used benzodiazepines (also known as minor tranquilisers) reported driving within three hours of drug use. This compares to 13.8 per cent of alcohol users who admitted driving with a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) greater than .05.<\/p>\n

Dr Moyes, NSW <\/span>Family First Parliamentary Leader, commented, “I welcome the increased number of roadside drug tests undertaken. Clearly, the research shows that more programs are needed in order to reduce drug driving in the State’s roads. We have seen a shift from drink driving to drug driving as more and more marijuana and ecstasy are readily available. There is an urgent need to provide widespread, targeted education and information to drug-using group”.<\/p>\n

“Increasing drug driving tests will prevent the number of fatalities in our roads. This preventative approach will effectively deal with the risks associated with a person driving under the influence of the effects of drugs and prevent further deaths in NSW<\/span> roads”, Dr Moyes concluded. END<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

24 March 2010. Roadside tests are detecting an alarming number of drivers affected by drugs. NSW Police have stepped up the number of roadside drug tests undertaken in NSW and caught 480 offenders in 2009 – up by 24 per cent on the previous year. According to Police Minister Michael Daley, “On average, that’s one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-470198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}