Medicinal Cannabis Users In Victoria Could Soon Be Allowed To Drive With THC In Their System. Is It Safe?

Amie
Hayley, Swinburne
University of Technology

Around 25,000
Australians
currently use medicinal cannabis products. They may be
prescribed to relieve symptoms and pain associated with
certain chronic
medical conditions, for chemotherapy-induced nausea, or
during palliative care.

In Australia, it’s an
offence for someone to drive if they’re using medicinal
cannabis products containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, the
main psychoactive component of cannabis). If they injure
another person in a traffic accident, they may face criminal
charges of driving while impaired.

If they’re
picked up at a roadside test, they’ll
be penalised in the same way as someone who tests
positive to illegal drugs.

But in
Victoria, this could soon change. A parliamentary
bill proposing to treat medicinal cannabis users like
people who use other prescription drugs,…