Ireland passes new road traffic law to crack down on drugged drivers

The Irish parliament on Tuesday passed a new road traffic bill, containing a series of reforms dealing with drugged driving.

Under the new law, Irish police have been given new powers to test drivers for drugs at the roadside. Current provisions for mandatory alcohol testing (MAT) checkpoints will be extended to provide for mandatory intoxication testing (MIT) checkpoints testing drivers for both alcohol and drugs.

Under the new measures, Irish police can ask drivers to undergo a preliminary drug test for cannabis, cocaine, a range of opiates (including heroin and morphine) and a range of benzodiazepines (including diazepam and flurazepam).

The government said drivers taking opiates and benzodiazepines prescribed by their doctors, have nothing to fear from the new measures.

However, drivers abusing drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, benzodiazepines and opiate and driving while impaired will face a minimum disqualification of four years for their first offense and six years for their second and subsequent offense.

Meanwhile, a new offense of driving/being in charge of a mechanically propelled vehicle with the presence of three illicit drugs (cannabis, cocaine, and heroin) has also been introduced.

This means that for the first time drivers found above new legal thresholds for these drugs will commit an offense without Irish police having to prove impairment as is currently the case under existing legislation.

In seeking to address concerns of those prescribed sativex (which contains cannabis) for illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, the government introduced in the bill a medical exemption certificate for those prescribed with sativex so that they do not fall under the new offense.

This will ensure that they cannot be arrested for driving with cannabis in their system.

The government warned, however, that if such drivers are impaired, they face the same sanctions as other drivers under existing drug driving legislation. Endit