There is nosmoke without ire
Learning from time spent on ebay not noncing potential purchases, but selling
‘I’m seeing more drivers bustedfor cannabis thanalcohol’
It has not quite sunk into the public’s consciousness, but the Police now have a reliable roadside indicator test for the recent use of cannabis, other illicit drugs and some legal prescription drugs. And now the testing has been made reliable and cheap it is adopted across the EU where there is now a fairly uniform method of dealing with the use of alcohol and drugs by drivers. In my work I am seeing more drivers being busted after roadside mouth swabs for cannabis after an accident than I am seeing alcohol related charges.
Cannabis
The use of cannabis reliably shows up for at least 24 hours after use in a roadside mouth swab and for much longer, and with much greater accuracy, in the blood tests that follow a positive or even border line mouth swab – which will also detect cocaine and other drugs. So, while readers will be well aware that a heavy night on alcohol may show up the next morning, a night of exotic cigarettes can still be showing up, reliably, at teatime the next day. Or for even longer. But if, as a law abiding citizen, you eschew the use of a Class B drug, prohibited under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, you might be tempted to legally partake of cannabis in one of Amsterdam’s cannabis cafes while taking in the delights of the Assen Grand Prix. Fair enough. It is not illegal, and the same position applies, after a fashion, in Portugal. But be warned, Holland’s drink drive limit is less than two thirds of the English and Welsh drink drive limits and the same as the Scots. So, if you simultaneously have blood alcohol and blood cannabinoids, and are pulled over by a Dutch ocer you are committing a serious criminal offence. There is zero tolerance in
Holland of beer and cannabis together, on motorised transport. So, while the Dutch are traditionally liberal, they take a hard line on some aspects of the law. An injury causing crash with any cannabis showing up in your system can result in a five figure fine.
While we remain a member of the European Union Dutch and other EU fines are easily enforceable in the UK and if the offence is a more serious one, for the time being at least, you will remain subject to a European Arrest Warrant. Likewise, Portugal’s relaxed views on the possession of personal amounts of cannabis are not reflected in an equally relaxed view of driving with detectable cannabinoids – fines here start at €500, and if you have a harm causing accident with detectable cannabinoids in your system, pack a toothbrush before you go before the Portuguese beaks, because your holiday may well be extended.
Busted
You can of course, if busted, add to your woes whether you are in Blighty or more exotic climes. It works like this: if you crash most motorcycle policies have an exclusion clause reducing your insurance to 3rd party only if you are subsequently found to have an illegal blood cannabinoid level or alcohol reading. In fact, one policy purports to hold your insurance void, but the legality of that has yet to be tested, and I am not convinced that line will hold at least in European law. The moral of this story is: riding a motorcycle having recently had an ‘exotic smoke’ is a significant risk, from all angles. Even where cannabis is decriminalised.
My mate Ed’s wonderful and gloriously standard 1997 VFR750, all 47,000 miles of it, was a sacrificial lamb ahead of his wedding. He’d stopped riding and it sat off an East London street for so long that in the tiny gap between it and a fence to which it was chained could be found a human turd, a new broom and a unicycle.
A buff and a lot of pictures taken just a few feet off the ground – minus the turd - make the machine look good. On his behalf, I opt to auction it to see how much it will get. The answer is barely north of a grand, some £500-800 below what I hoped for. It’s an inbetweener bike, not old enough to be a classic, not young enough to attract dealers. Philip in Hertfordshire ferries the red galleon away on a trailer with the bike appreciated, if not appreciating.
Next up was my track-only 2013 BMW S1000RR. A race bike can be a woodman’s axe, tailored with suspension and performance set-up. Pricing is tricky as hell, made worse by race team bikes hitting the market but with the best bits taken off. Caveat empty, I’d guess. My Beemer had a wallet-taunting Arrow titanium full exhaust, top-spec Nitron suspension and meaty Jetprime switchgear. Such trinkets add little to the value of such a bike.
I adhere to some basics on ebay. Be straight, don’t tell people how to think (‘you won’t find better’ is always a lie), take simple and unfussy pictures, and learn to spell.
Priced at £8200 with 12,000 miles, interest in the Beemer is thin apart from a pair whose dreams outpace their bank balance. It doesn’t sell.
I cut the price to £7800 and interest picks up. Stuart, an AA man from Chelmsford, runs an S1000RR on the road but wants a track bike. Good communication in ebay-land is everything and we speak by phone, talking through the details. He’s no bullshitter, that’s clear. He likes what he sees. We agree £7300 and he pays in cash. Quaint. It’s gone to a good owner. I never loved the bike – too clinical and pricy to service – but at Jerez, Aragon and Anglesey it served up some of my best moments in motorcycling.