Cannabis law a threat too

COVID-19 IS NOT THE ONLY HEALTH RISK WE should be focused on, Road Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett believes – raising concerns that cannabis legalisation laws will slip through unnoticed with so much focus on the coronavirus pandemic.

Leggett wants people – particularly those in the road transport industry – to recognise the potential threat to safety on the roads and in the workplace raised by the Government’s proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill.

Voters in the general election on September 19 will be asked whether they do or do not support the proposed Bill….which, Leggett is at pains to point out, is about legalising marijuana for recreational use, not merely medicinal.

Leggett says the proposal gives “no consideration for workplace and road safety, in a country where the number of people being killed on the roads by drug-impaired drivers is higher than those killed by drivers above the legal alcohol limit.

“We have a drug problem in NZ. Road freight transport companies know that and have drug testing regimes to ensure safety within their companies.

“But if this legislation passes, there will be no guarantees for those professional drivers going out onto the road, where there are other road users who are legally high.”

T&D