Posted by Molybdenum on June 25, 2008, at 21:09:51
In reply to Re: Celexa and MJ - do they cancel out? » ryno, posted by Horned One on June 25, 2008, at 14:48:30
Yep,
I have to agree with The Horned One. I am in Australia, and while we are quite a relaxed bunch in so many ways, there is zero tolerance of persons driving "under the influence".
In my state, people lose their license if their blood alcohol content (BAC) is over 0.05%. And it doesn't take too many drinks at all to get you to .05.
Professional drivers such as truck, bus or taxi drivers; plus those who've had their license for less than 3 years must have a zero BAC. These people need to be very careful about cough mixtures that contain alcohol, as zero really means ZERO.
For at least 20 years the police have had these buses where they can do blood tests. They park just over a hill, with pursuit cars ready to pounce at every possible exit. So as soon as you see them, you can't escape - not that I care much as I hardly drink & wouldn't drive if I did anyway. So you're put in a queue to get tested. They use a disposable straw thing that attaches to a breath tester. You blow into it & if it reads 0.05%, then they take you into the bus for a blood test. I'm pretty sure you can refuse to take the tests - that's your right. The penalty for exercising that right is the MAXIMUM penalty for drink driving. :) aka "the idiot's defence"...!
I always find it funny when I see shows from other countries where drunk people have to touch their nose with their eyes closed or walk on a straight line, etc. Beats me why the police just don't use the breath & blood tests. Admittedly, our methods would make for boring TV viewing ;)
So the idea of stopping people driving while "intoxicated" has almost unanimous public support. The trouble until recently, is that there's no easy way to detect the other 1000 drugs that can adversely affect your ability to drive.
They do now have a saliva test that picks up THC (ie "MJ"), amphetamines and possibly opiates. If the saliva test comes up positive, a blood test or second saliva test is required. They send that off to a lab for confirmation & to determine exact quantities. Apparently THC is detectable in saliva for several hours after smoking.
The interesting thing for me is that I could very well test positive for both THC & amphetamines(I used to take a lot of Ritalin for "narcolepsy"). I think they'd do the blood test & then I'd need to provide them with evidence of exactly what & how much my doc had prescribed. I imagine that if my blood test results agreed with the specific amounts I'd been prescribed, I'd be OK. However, if I had taken say double what the doc had prescribed, I might be in trouble despite my use not being technically "illegal". It all gets very grey here because what one drug at a given dose will do to one person, is completely different to how it might affect someone else. So I'd probably end up in court having to argue that despite OD'ing a bit, I wasn't actually "intoxicated" and that my ability to drive safely wasn't diminished. Hmm...it could go either way.
The whole point is to punish those who knowingly drive while "intoxicated". So unless my blood test indicated I'd deliberately overdosed myself, I think I'd be OK provided they didn't see me driving "dangerously", etc. It's an interesting issue for us Aussies who are "highly medicated" sorts.
And finally to explain why I might test positive for THC, I was reading at Wiki recently about one of the meds I am prescribed (can't remember which one!) and it said that it can produce a false positive reading for THC. So that's another complication...!
One more aspect to all this is that I recently heard of a truck driver who was involved in a fatal accident while driving. He didn't test positive for ANYTHING, but he had been doing double-shifts and was therefore knowingly very tired when the accident happened. I think he got convicted just the same as if he were drunk. Hmmmm......
So sorry for hijacking your thread worriedGF. I'll stop now & release all the hostages - unharmed ;)
Mr. M.
poster:Molybdenum
thread:836341
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080617/msgs/836454.html