The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is introducing roadside tests to detect drug driving.
This is an initial 12 month pilot programme across Northern Ireland, during which officers will use new swab testing kits on motorists, which can pick up the presence of cocaine and cannabis.
The £18 kits take eight minutes to produce a result.
They can be used at checkpoints in much the same way as breathalysers are used to detect drink driving.
The PSNI said new legislation has been required to make the move possible.
'Target those using illegal drugs'
Assistant Chief Constable Melanie Jones, who is responsible for the PSNI's Operational Support Department, said “driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs will drastically increase the risk of causing a collision.
Since January 46 people died on NI roads.
That number is far too high and we must work together to keep each other safe," she said.
“These drug wipes will allow us to target those using illegal drugs while driving and ensure they face the full rigours of the law for their lack of care for the safety of fellow citizens.,' she added.
Department for Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd said: “The launch of this roadside drugs-test tool is timely.''
“In the North, the death rate on our roads is, on average, one per week. It’s a shocking statistic and the devastation every road death leaves in its wake knows no boundaries.''
“In 2023, 11 people were killed in road traffic collisions where alcohol or drugs were attributed.''
by Be_like_Rudiger
17 comments
I thought they already had a test for this, at least a test for one of grass or toot.
And about time too.
Will it be able to distinguish between someone who has taken them before driving on say a Monday morning, and going on the rip on a Friday night? Just asking.
Oh fuck
Slightly surreal image in the article of him holding a 1 m cardboard version like one of those giant charity cheques
I hate how they’ve bundled the drugs statistic in with alcohol.
I also wish they’d release actual statistics on the cause of road deaths, because unless it’s alcohol – they seem to disregard other causes.
This has been a thing in England for a while, mad it’s taken so long to be a thing over here!
the results of these kits have already been called spurious at the very least,
more powers to stop you and fuk you,
test yerselves,
cunts
How were they drug testing before this? Surely not relying on blood testing….
Wonder how this could affect me as a MC patient. Even if I’ve not had any it will show on these
No one should be driving under the influence of either.
*“In the North, the death rate on our roads is, on average, one per week. It’s a shocking statistic and the devastation every road death leaves in its wake knows no boundaries.”*
And yet we still continue along the route that the general public can operate heavy high speed vehicles on a regular basis if we just criminalise enough behaviours. Private vehicle based transportation networks will never be safe. Unless we get serious offering reasonable public transport alternatives we will continue seeing these deaths, no matter how many tests and rules are put into place.
46 isn’t that really high a number. (Yes, I have actually two family members that have died in a road accident and one from someone in toxicated).
So if a person smoked a joint last week or three weeks ago, do they get treated the same way a cocaine or alcohol user? What if the person is completely sober for three weeks, but the test comes back as positive? Something should be said about this.
Not many people know this, but weed is legal here. You apply for a medical card and go through two consultations, which cost 50 quid each. After that, you are given a medical card to buy weed from the same doctors. So, hypothetically let’s say I have this card and I take my “medicine” in the morning around 8am and then drive to the shops at lunch time and there’s the PSNI with cannibas testing kits…what would happen then?
You’d only be stoned for an hour or two. It’s wore off by 11am, but now it’s 1pm, and you’re driving for lunch completely sober.
About dam time!
Pretty big aren’t they, takes 2 people to hold them /s
I would be happy about this, but they’re wildly inaccurate for reefer, the legal limit is set to a trace amount as weed is illegal which results in the completely sober motorist off to the cell on their way to work Monday morning. Thankfully I have a prescription so I have to be impaired to be arrested as it should be