Aside from healthy and legitimate concerns of the aut oridades competent by injunction the sobriety of the people behind the wheel of any vehicle that is circulating in public — including how it has ventilated from the path also cyclists-, should be noted some logical findings from civil society.
It happens that some of the detectable drugs by the Narcotest are also drugs currently listed and supervised by medical professionals. It is the case of some opiates and cannabis, both useful in diseases of high frequency among the population, such as chronic pain.
According to the fact that these drugs should be, due to the chronic nature of pathologies, consumed for long periods of time and with a frequency that contrasted with the characteristics of the test – their ability to discriminate only presence or absence, and their ability to detect consumption made up to 20 hours before – create an apparent incompatibility between treatment and conduction, arise some doubts, no less legitimate and healthy.
As he has been reported, and depending on variables such as sex, texture of the consumer, and quantity and power of the drug, the temporary margin that must be between the time of the consumption and driving the vehicle is 8-20 hours. Well, given that the acute effect of alteration of consciousness resulting from inhalation of cannabis takes around 4 hours, and taken by mouth is of up to 8 hours, it is legitimate to ask what legal situation will be those who are consuming it regularly as part of a medical treatment and which should also, as part of their daily routine, driving some kind of vehicle.
Are the courts called to settle each case? Would not be more economic and reasonable to have detailed information (quantity and power of the drug, characteristic physical and biological conductor or conductive) on what will be considered punishable, on all given that, in case of positive result for any drug? then be an additional blood test to determine final status?
Because if these parameters are not detailed by the authority, so that people should consume cannabis or opioids as part of a medical treatment (or even for recreational purposes, given that drug law allows it) can know what are exposed the net of this control measure impact will tend to remain entirely on the side of the classical prohibitionist campaign. Something already prefigured by the chosen terms “Narcotest” and “Zero tolerance” to frame the new measure, which seeks, then, rather than educate and introduce rationality, discouraging consumption through fear. And if this is the case, the citizenship already not should be so passively to this blackmail, being worthy, on the other hand, additional fees for information and rationality. Devil is in the details, and not on the fact of consuming or not, as it seems to want to make us believe the shift authority.
A person who drives a vehicle after 6 hours of having inhaled cannabis as part of their medical treatment, and that may be positive in the test, should not be fined, or withdrawn from circulation, as it already is, by the characteristics of the drug and form of consumption, return to a mental state of clarity and sobriety, compatible with driving. It is necessary, then, that the competent authorities specified better, drug by drug, the issue of allowances, doses and measures, including the considerations which arise from the posterior blood test. It is the duty of the authority not only to better inform citizens, but also to clinicians that we use some of these drugs as part of our daily therapeutic arsenal.
Poured in this op-ed content is the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial line nor the counter position.
