Glue-driving count decision reserved

Press, 25 July 1986, Page 7

Glue-driving count decision reserved

PA Palmerston North Judge E. W. Unwin has reserved decision on New Zealand’s first charge of driving under the influence of glue. The- Judge said he had to decide if a solvent, in this case glue, came within the definition of a drug. Appearing before . him in the District Court at Wanganui was Thomas Sydney Balsley, aged 20, unemployed, of Wanganui. Balsley pleaded not guilty to a charge of driving a vehicle while under the influence of drugs to such an extent as to be incapable of having proper control. He was defended by Mr G. Fulton.

The Crown prosecutor, Mr P. Moran, called four witnesses to give evidence that Balsley had been driving under the influence of a solvent, and that a solvent was a drug. Keith Schultz, a traffic officer, said that-on the afternoon of January 22 he was called to Lincoln Road where he saw a Holden utility driven by Balsley moving slowly near the centre line of the road.

He turned on the siren and questioned the defendant when he stopped in the Fitzherbert Avenue car-park. “He kept replying ‘what’s happening man. “When he got out of the car, he was unsteady on

his feet, had a fixed stare and appeared to be in an advanced state of intoxication.

“He was not with it, at any stage. He was totally incoherent. He was away with the fairies.” Mr Schultz said he noticed a tin of glue in the car and a plastic bag containing a similar substance between the defendant’s legs.

After an alcohol breathscreening test proved negative, Mr Schultz said he arrested Balsley for driving under the influence of drugs. Thirty minutes later at a doctor’s surgery he said the defendant was a “completely different person,” coherent and speaking intelligently. Two other Ministry of Transport witnesses supported Mr Schultz’s evidence.

John Francis Lewin, a Department of Scientific and Industrial Research scientist of Lower Hutt, said he had tested Balsley’s blood sample and found it contained the solvents acetone and toluene: 40mgs and lOmgs per millilitre of blood respectively.

“Acetone does occur in the blood naturally after fasting, but in somewhat higher doses than* in this case. There is no way I know that a body can make toluene.” He said the contents of glue, such as the can found in the defendent’s vehicle, contained acetone and toluene. These compounds could be found in the blood after sniffing or drinking glue. The two compounds could be defined as poisons, he said. Mr Lewin said he could not say if acetone and toluene were drugs, as that depended on what the definition of a drug was.

The defence called no witnesses, because Mr Fulton said there was no case to answer.

He said that under present transport legislation impaired driving while under the influence of a solvent was not an offence.

Judge Unwin said it would be up to him to determine if, when Parliament passed the act, it intended drugs to include substances such as solvents.