Cannabis clinic calls for driving amnesty for pot users as road drug laws under review

A cannabis clinic is calling for a driving amnesty for pot users after marijuana prescriptions tripled in the past year, prompting a state review into drug driving laws. TAKE OUR POLL

A Brisbane cannabis clinic is calling for a state driving amnesty for pot users after the number of medicinal marijuana prescriptions has tripled across the nation in the past year.

Cann I Help network doctor and medicinal cannabis specialist Laurence Kemp made the call after thousands of cannabis users have been forced to stop driving under current state laws.

Dr Kemp said the state’s drug driving laws needed to be updated to keep pace with the surge in the number of medicinal cannabis users and prescriptions.

He said barring users from driving affected hundreds of families each day.

“My national network treats about 5000 medicinal cannabis patients and each week, I treat about 15 additional people — half are affected by not being able to drive,” he said.

“It means that some people are not taking their medication, which poses major problems, while others decide to risk losing their licence and continue to drive so they can drive to work.”

Cannabis specialist general practitioner Dr Laurence Kemp has called for a driving amnesty for cannabis users and said the state’s drug driving laws need updating. Picture: Sarah Marshall Photography

The national surge in cannabis prescriptions prompted the state government to launch a review of its drug driving laws and an investigation into a “driving amnesty” for medicinal cannabis users.

Since January 2021, approved medicinal cannabis prescriptions have soared by a whopping 270 per cent from about 92,000 prescriptions to more than 248,000 nationally.

The review into Queensland’s drug driving laws will consider allowing thousands of medicinal cannabis users to get behind the wheel while they still have the drug in their blood.

Tasmania is the only state where it is legal to drive with the active cannabis ingredient THC in the body.

If drivers in Queensland test positive to the drug, they can be disqualified from driving, fined, or even go to prison for up to three months.

Dr Kemp said cannabis could impair people’s driving ability but the effects wore off, on average, after eight hours when most are capable of driving safely.

He said traces of the drug could remain in the blood for up to three months which ruled out driving for most users.

Last year, drink and drug-driving incidents contributed to the deaths of 53 people on the state’s roads and seriously injured 600 others with 273 ending up in hospital.

The drug-driving review, announced by Transport Minister Mark Bailey late last month, will also consider giving police discretionary powers not to charge drivers whose only offence is having minimal traces of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or cannabis, in their blood.

A similar review has concluded in New South Wales, where a driving amnesty was rejected.

Mr Bailey said the review would not relax his tough line stance on road rules and that advances in technology meant police would soon be able to test a person’s impairments after cannabis was detected in the blood.

“Currently with alcohol, police not only detect that you have got it (in your blood) but they know exactly what kind of level is in your bloodstream,” Mr Bailey said.

“For medicinal cannabis, we can only detect that you have it in your system and at the moment that is illegal to be driving like that.

“It is possible that technology may be able to identify, going forward, the level of impairment.”

Medicinal cannabis campaigner Deb Lynch with her cannabis oil she uses to treat her various ailments. Picture: Glenn Hampson

Medicinal cannabis user and activist Deb Lynch said she was working with Queensland Police and the state Opposition to draft plans for an amnesty card for possession and producing cannabis which could also be used for driving.

“QPS, so far, have been very supportive of the idea, which is based on CanCard, which is working in the UK, where police do not charge 98 per cent of cases where a person shows the card,” Ms Lynch said.

“I’m working on something similar here which will allow thousands of people to continue normal lives and driving if tests show their abilities are not impaired.

“A Sydney study found there is no scientific evidence to prove that cannabis causes impairment in regular users and medical patients who use it daily.”

The state government is assessing whether to relax the road rules to allow cannabis users to drive despite a NSW decision rejecting the plan.

Ms Lynch also warned about overpriced consultation fees and prices for prescribed products.

She said compassionate discounts of 15, 30 and 50 per cent were available but often impossible to obtain as the criteria was “ridiculously hard to meet”.

“A 30 per cent discount on scripts of $1920 per month equates to a saving of $527 so this is still totally unaffordable for me on a pension,” she said.

“Many of these clinics are nothing more than marketing ploys, for a vertically-integrated company to flog off their goods, in a very competitive industry.

“These companies are making between 100 and 200 per cent profit on each item as cannabis will never be on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.”

Dr Kemp’s medical network, called Cann I Help, opened its seventh clinic this month to cater for the massive surge in demand for the drug in Queensland.

The stand-alone clinic at 17 Mile Rocks, Ipswich, is a one-stop shop with consulting rooms upstairs and a dispensary downstairs.

It was added to the Cann I Help network after high rates of patient numbers at clinics at Victoria Point, Goodna, inner-city Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney and Melbourne.