Saliva test options may end drug-drivers’ free pass

Better measures are needed to stop crashes caused by drivers under the influence of drugs, and the Government is looking at saliva testing as one of these options.

Associate Transport Minister Craig Foss said part of the Government’s Safer Journeys Action Plan was to reduce crashes caused by impaired drivers.

‘‘The Government has already introduced a number of measures targeting drink-driving but we needed more research to understand how drug-driving enforcement could be carried out most effectively,’’ he said.

‘‘The Ministry of Transport has completed a review of the drugdriving enforcement regime and I expect Cabinet to consider its findings in the next few months.’’

A government review in 2012 of the drug testing regime concluded saliva screening could detect only three drugs – cannabis, metham- phetamine and ecstasy.

Driving under the influence of cannabis was the most common drug-driving behaviour but devices were ‘‘unlikely to detect half of the users’’, NZ Transport Agency reported.

It was decided New Zealand would not follow in the footsteps of Australia in adopting random roadside testing for drugs.

However, the door was left open to further research to inform the road safety strategy to 2020, and with technological advances New Zealand would reconsider saliva testing. In Britain, a device introduced in 2015 tests for cocaine and cannabis from a saliva sample within three minutes, with reliability claimed at better than 95 per cent.

Last year it was reported 47 per cent of people, who are not ‘‘habitual’’ substance users, take drugs and drive.