Victoria Police still cannot test for cocaine on roadside tests 18 months after the government said was working on it

Victoria Police is still unable to test for cocaine at the roadside, despite the fact other states are now doing so.

Victoria Police cannot test for cocaine on roadside tests 18 months after it was revealed the government was working on the project and as other states have powered ahead.

This month it was revealed Queensland Police will start driver testing for the drug as technological improvements have made the process easier.

New South Wales is also able to test for the substance.

But Victoria is yet to follow suit despite telling the Saturday Herald Sun in January it was exploring options about how to do so.

A parliamentary inquiry into the state’s road toll recommended the change as a way of reducing trauma related to substance abuse.

Victoria Police pull over drivers at a roadside drug and alcohol testing site in Southbank. Picture: Ian Currie

The government says it is still working on the technical issues of adding cocaine to roadside tests, including changes to legislation and how it would influence Victoria Police operations.

Police are also working through these issues, including the practical change and the key question of whether it provides enough benefit to justify its cost.

Cocaine clears out of the system faster than other drugs and it is understood the individual tests are expensive, with equipment upgrades also requiring significant investment.

The Andrews government is currently battling a difficult budget position as net debt continues to soar and interest rates bite.

Departments have been urged to find savings of 10 per cent and all government employers, including cops and hospitals, must also budget for a 42 per cent increase in WorkCover premiums this year.

A state government spokeswoman said they would give police the resources they need to crack down on dangerous drug drivers.

“This year’s budget includes funding to keep providing 150,000 roadside drug tests a year and we’ve introduced new penalties that swiftly remove risky and repeat drug-drivers from the road,” she said.

A Victoria Police statement said the force was continuing to work with its road safety partners to better understand the impact cocaine has on the state’s road trauma.

“This will inform future progress and considerations to expanding the roadside drug testing program,” the statement said.

New South Wales police have been able to do roadside cocaine tests since 2018 and Queensland added the drug to its roadside testing regime on July 7.

Figures in Queensland showed the rate of fatal crashes involving a driver with cocaine in their system rose from 4.3 per cent to 6.1 per cent in the space of three years.

Victoria Police says it’s continuing to work with its road safety partners to better understand the impact cocaine has on the state’s road trauma. Picture: Ian Currie

When Victoria’s parliamentary inquiry called for cocaine testing, the government acknowledged the problem but said data showed the drug was less common than others in crashes.

One Melbourne police officer said anecdotal evidence of increasingly widespread cocaine use meant people would certainly be driving with it in their system in big numbers

“It’d be in Brighton, Hawthorn, Toorak, Prahran. It’d show up there,” he said.

That officer said the prevalence of drug-driving more generally was at high levels.

“We used to get all drink-drive. Now, we get more drug-drive than drink-drive,” he said.

Opposition police spokesman Brad Battin said the road toll was up 28 per cent but the government was failing to act on drug driving – a key cause of accidents.

“Another broken promise by Labor will cost lives as police can’t test drivers and take drug affected people off the road before it is too late,” he said.