I have more contact with Legalise Cannabis’s NSW MP Jeremy Buckingham than any of our other elected politicians. Possibly because I’m in his state, but also he’s the most hippie of the four.
He has a piece of paradise in the Bellingen valley and could easily be there picking oranges in his orchard and doing what hippies do, like I am! However, he moved to Sydney with his family for the role and wears a suit every day.
I have a bit of an idea of what his job must be like from my own suit wearing days in Collins Street. It’s all so straight in Macquarie Street, the belly of Babylon. Whenever I go there, I’m struck by the world inside Parliament House, not exactly a rarified atmosphere but they live in their own little universe.
The Legalise Cannabis Party has only one policy, it’s in the name, one job. Jeremy organised an inquiry which came out with the same results as the State’s own Drug Summit: drug use is a health issue, decriminalise pot, move towards a regulated market, etc etc, but it all gets ignored.
His hemp committee has just helped to get $20 million put into two real projects building hemp processing mills, one for fibre and another building hemp bricks and panels. But his real mission has been to get the Roadside Drug Testing rules changed after the Premier ruled out any changes to other cannabis laws, remember? Just before his own drug summit he announced that, WTF!
So every chance Jeremy got he tried to educate the teetotaller Premier on driving with cannabis is not the problem it’s been made out to be. We were promised some change and I think we’ve just been offered the smallest possible. Tiny but significant.
It’s significant in that it’s finally some acceptance of us driving and no longer automatically losing our licence, if we have a registered script.
It’s the beginning of a change as I see it and importantly, it gets reviewed in a year.
Actually, I don’t think the Premier has anything to do with the new proposed Legislation which will be put up and debated in August. This has all been devised by the transport people and the police, our drug experts.
As I currently understand it there will be no change to the roadside testing. The change will be what happens with your results. If you are a registered mediweed user and your lab saliva result is under 50ng nothing happens. If you’re over 50ng you get two chances, the third time you go to court.
Fortunately, I have some experience on nanograms. A nanogram is one part in a billion. When I was first tested, over five years ago, I pled not guilty for some reason, so they gave me my lab result: 1200ng. The lawyer refused to do my case saying it would look terrible in court so I didn’t, though I argued it would make their testing look stoopid, wouldn’t it?
So I changed my plea, and the magistrate let me keep driving when I told her my medical reason. The copper at the court said I didn’t appear impaired. My saliva was collected at least two hours after I smoked an excellent joint. 50ng is so small I suspect I might wake up with more.
Importantly, I only got my nanogram reading because I pleaded not guilty. Currently they test our saliva but don’t disclose the readings, you’re just guilty or not. Any presence is guilty, that’s what will change.
Why not disclose our readings, like with alcohol testing? It’s very important we change that so they must disclose in the future.
It’s important to know that the 50ng limit they are using has no clinical evidence backing it regarding impairment. It’s just an administrative guideline used to detect presence. A nanogram is one part in a billion!!
So, for the hundreds of thousands of NSW adults who smoke a joint or have a cone or two in the morning (or have edibles, tinctures, gummies, capsules etc which are much harder to detect in saliva) the change is big, but only so long as you register. Otherwise RDT stays the same for you. No get out of jail card.
The NRMA is screaming and the Liberals will vote against it and the hippies in Nimbin are spitting in the dust in disgust. We are the only country on Earth testing like this. Of course people with pain, anxiety, ptsd, epilepsy, Parkinson’s etc, people who love cannabis as their saviour, are better drivers with their medicine inside them.
The same as the millions who every morning take their Pharma pills for the same medical problems, including a couple of million daily opiate users in NSW.
RDT is just another weapon in the drug war, and a lethal one. Weed might finally be legal, but you’re not allowed to drive. Reefer Madness is alive and well.
In response to the NSW announcement Qld says it is doing the opposite and dramatically increasing its punishments for drug drivers to up to $4500 fine for a first offence! In NSW it’s currently a $704 fine and 3 months loss of licence.
I keep seeing the NRMA and others screaming 60% of drug driving deaths are caused by cannabis. What they mean I think is, of all the deaths on the road which have illegal drugs in their blood, 60% of those have cannabis either with other drugs or alone.
All the other drugs are water soluble and out of our bodies in a couple of days, but fat-soluble cannabis stays for about three months. Our bodies’ endocannabinoid system wants it and hangs on it, unlike all the processed and chemical drugs it throws out asap.
This is the same reason John Howard said cannabis was causing psychosis. Anyone entering hospital has their blood checked, like car accident deaths, and sure enough cannabis came up in heaps, because it stays there so long.
Misreading statistics, deliberately or not, is helping corral us into a corner where they want us to buy their legal weed and register as a user. The police promise Transport has the details and they won’t use it to check drivers.
Remember the Grand Canyon of understanding between those who have had their eyes opened and those who haven’t? It’s still there of course.