Breath tests for drugs?

Press, 12 May 1987, Page 6

Breath tests for drugs?

By

ROBERT LOWE

NZPA Sydney The Ministry of Transport will follow up Australian research on a roadside breath test to detect the use of drugs by drivers, the Under-Secre-tary for Transport, Mr Jeffries has said. Mr Jeffries said he had been briefed by Australian authorities on a cannabis sensor developed at the t University of Tasmania. Although no figures were presented, he believed they were inexpensive to make. “The university has developed a prototype roadside breathalyser test which is cheap to produce and use, and, I am told it is very reliable," he said. “At present, it is being evaluated by two professors at the University of Sydney and we will follow up on that evaluation.”

Mr Jeffries said the Parliamentary Select Committee on Transport and Road Safety, of which he is chairman, is compiling a report on driving under the influence of alcohol and other drugs.

Mr Jeffries is due to present the report on “in-toxicant-impaired driving” to Parliament in a month.

“We will be making recommendations about enforcement in a general sense and how to ascertain that people are impaired in their driving,” he said. “We will also be mak-

tag ' recommendations about penalties.”

Mr Jeffries said that, while driving under the influence of cannabis was an offence in New Zealand, the incidence of conviction was “very low”.

In Tasmania, studies at the university have shown that a quarter of road accident victims in . the state had significant levels of drugs in their systems. The most common drugs identified were marijuana, therapeutic drugs such as Serapax and Valium, and barbiturates. The findings were presented to the Federal parliamentary transport safety committee in Hobart last month. The Committee’s chairwoman, Mrs Elaine Darling, said the problem was not just one of “recreational” drugs, but also over-the-counter and prescribed drugs. In New South Wales, the State Government has introduced legislation that includes provision for sixmonth jail terms for motorists who drive under the influence of drugs. It also carries the possibility of fines up to SAustlOOO ($1200) and automatic disqualification from driving for 12 months. The new laws, expected to take effect later this year, provide for compulsory blood and urine tests for any driver that police suspect of being under the influence of drugs.