Jump to content
The Corroboree

marcshroom

Members
  • Content count

    2
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About marcshroom

  • Rank
    Day Tripper

Previous Fields

  • Climate or location
    Brisbane
  1. marcshroom

    Roadside Drug Swabs

    Hi, I will comment on this topic in relation to the situation in Germany. In Germany the police has started drug testing drivers in 1998. Driving under the influence of drugs is a criminal offense and a driver loses his license for no less than two years. Besides being a criminal offense, driving under the influence of drugs is also subjected to what is called "Verwaltungsrecht", which translates to administation law. So in order to get yourlicense back after two years, you will have to pass a so called "Medizinisch Psychologische Untersuchung" (MPU), a medical and psychological assessment. During a period of 2 years you will randomly get called in to provide urine samples, which get analysed in a lab (no quick detection test) and are forensically accepted in court. You will also have to convince a psychologist that you have overcome your addiction/dependency. You have to pay for each drug test and for the psychological assessment. Possession of drugs (besides cannabis) automatically leads to a "Verwaltungsrecht" infringement and you lose your license and have to do a MPU. Although only active THC in the blood constitutes a criminal offence, elevated THC-COOH and other metabolites lead to you having to do a MPU as the authorities have serious doubts to believe that you are not addicted to the drug and, thus are seen as a potential danger on the road. You will have to prove that you give up cannabis in order to be allowed to drive again. And we all know that THC metabolites remain dettectable for up to 3 months, so if you are a regular smoker you're best off not driving... In fact you can even lose your licence for walking around stoned since you actively part take in the road traffic as a pedestrian (happened to a mate of mine). Now, to the road side testing: The police will pull you up and come up with some story like your eyes are red. They will then put a little torch in your eyes and pretend that your pupils are not reacting as they should and they have serious reasons to believe that you are under the influence of narcotics. They will then pressure you to perform a urine test (quick test) which tests Cannabis,(substituted) Amphetamines, Opiates and cocaine. Now, urinating into a cup is an active process and you don't have to do it as this could be self-incremenating. If you refuse tehy will take you to the station and a blood sample will be taken. If you do not agree with the blood sample but let them take it and it comes back negative, you can then press charges against the officers for aggravated assault, seeing that they have had someone insert a very sharp object into your arm. The officers will get in trouble. If the results are positive, well you lose your license etc... The reason why it is advisable to not let the do a urine test ist that passive inhaling of cannabis will give a + reading, eating poppy seeds on your bread roll etc will test + for opiates. So I think the situation is fairly relaxed here in Australia when it comes to drugs and losing your license (compared to the forth Reich) Now about Australia: How do those road side tests work? Do you spit into smthg? This would be self-incriminating? Perhaps you can refuse it on those grounds... Or does the cop swab inside your mouth with a cotton tip? This would be an invasive procedure with an officer inserting smthg into one of your body cavities. I'm sure you can refuse to let them do this. (I mean otherwise they might as well start to perform random roadside cavity searches) If a blood test comes back negative and you have not given consent to it but have not stopped them from doing their job, could you take them to court for assault, like in Germany? I don't see why some cop should get away with getting a needle inserted into your arm just because he believes to be a psychopharmacologist/physiologist in uniform... What is the situation with driving with legally prescribed Ritalin in Australia? OK, I just read the above post. So you are meant to perform the swab yourself. I think this is definitely a form a self incrimination and you should be able to refuse to do it...
×