Waatea News Column: Simeon Brown’s roadside drug testing will produce racist results against Māori
The Government’s new roadside drug testing laws will produce more racist outcomes for Māori.
Māori use cannabis at a higher rate than non Māori and these roadside tests will only prove if someone has smoked cannabis, it won’t prove impairment.
Cannabis can stay in people’s system well beyond its impact on your ability to drive, what these roadside tests will do is show if someone has smoked cannabis and claim that is enough to punish you.
Of course we want our roads to be safe and we do not want people who are impaired by drugs driving on them, but these tests won’t prove that, all they will prove is that someone smoked cannabis over the last month!
With Māori smoking cannabis more than non-Māori and the ‘unconscious’ bias against Māori by NZ Police, these roadside drug tests that won’t prove you are impaired, and will only prove you’ve smoked cannabis, will immediately start producing negative outcomes for Māori.
With medicinal cannabis now legal in NZ, many drivers are about to get caught up in a drug testing regime that will be unfair and biased against Māori.
We need our roads to be safe from impaired drivers, these roadside tests will not do that.
First published on Waatea News.
Pseudoephedrine is a drug , unfortunately there are many people taking legal prescribed drugs that could impair their driving ability. How Seymour got away with advertising pseudoephedrine is beyond me especially when Marama Davidson was pinged for standing with a bar of Whittaker’s chocolate
Don’t take your medications either and don’t drive the next day if drinking alcohol as it is still in your blood stream and did, I say don’t breathe cause the COC is suffocating, controlling and authoritative.
I call every pothole my car drives over a Simeon (and there is many)
From the Hempstore website.
https://hempstore.co.nz/blog/how-to-access-medicinal-cannabis-in-new-zealand-/
4. Live like it’s legal, with legal protections
Patients with prescriptions can consume their medicinal cannabis in public, drive if not impaired, and travel with it.
Driver and workplace testing have defences available for prescribed medicinal use (just like other prescribed drugs).
Spend $99 to get a med card and when stopped they can’t touch you unless you are visibly impaired. The law is clear even if the average plod doesn’t understand it.
So no point cops revenue gathering testing someone legally using medicine.
The need for testing for stupidity is now. We can call it the Simeon test.
I call every pothole my car drives over a Simeon (and there is many)
Simeon or Simpleton – synonymous!
Don’t want to fail the test..
Don’t smoke cannabis or don’t drive. Basic stuff.
Dead right.
It’s not about not wanting to fail the test, it’s about the accuracy of the test.
Thank goodness Chair for a broader view. Pygmies have been given a bad press especially when one views smallness in a so-called civilised milieu.
Don’t take your medication either and don’t drive the next day if drinking alcohol is still in your blood stream and did, I say don’t breathe cause the COC is suffocating, controlling and authoritative.
Will roadside drug testing that doesn’t prove you’re impaired stand up in court?
Should we be wasting police and the courts time with unprovable accusations?
If it opens the door to locking up higher value criminals why not give it a shot.
Because it’s not a fair collar.
When the justice system acts unjust, people lose faith in the system.
Furthermore, this is meant to address road safety. it’s not a fishing expedition.