{"id":12450,"date":"2026-06-24T20:25:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T10:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/?p=12450"},"modified":"2026-06-24T20:25:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T10:25:54","slug":"nsw-parliament-egregiously-misled-on-cannabis-driving-drug-free-australia-media-release-june-2026-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/nsw-parliament-egregiously-misled-on-cannabis-driving-drug-free-australia-media-release-june-2026-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW Parliament egregiously misled on cannabis driving (Drug Free Australia \u2013 Media Release, June 2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

There has never been a right to harm others – and impaired driving most certainly harms others.\u00a0 The role of Parliament is to ensure safety for the community rather than endangering it, where a minority\u2019s convenience for transport should never be placed above risking the life of another human.<\/p>

Those behind the media campaign seeking new legislation easing controls on medical cannabis patients caught driving post-medicating have been egregiously misleading the public.\u00a0 A 7 News story<\/a> shows a cannabis patient at the wheel of a driving simulator before and after taking his cannabis meds, and passing the test with almost flying colours.\u00a0 Yet the news segment ignores irrefutable scientific evidence that intoxication from orally consumed cannabis, due to the slowness of the body\u2019s metabolism, does not peak until 1.5 – 4 hours<\/a> after ingestion.\u00a0 What appears to be a sleight-of-hand media setup exploits the ignorance of the non-cannabis-using public thus enabling the very kind of intoxicated driving that costs human lives.<\/p>

And human lives are indeed the denominator.\u00a0 The best quality driving statistics from the US experiment of legalising medical and recreational cannabis come from Colorado, which had a specific medical cannabis commercialisation phase causing an explosion from 5,000 to 41,000 patients in 2009<\/a> alone, and from Washington, the other US State to legalise recreational use in 2013 alongside Colorado.\u00a0 While Colorado saw cannabis use increase by 54% (see graphs below signature), the percentage of total road deaths from those drivers testing positive to cannabis more than<\/strong> doubled<\/strong> from 9% to 21%.\u00a0 Washington experienced the same over-representation of fatalities \u2013 for a 42% increase<\/a> in cannabis use they had more than a doubling<\/a> in the percentage of THC-involved vehicle fatalities.<\/p>

There is a considerable science on why cannabis driving is causing these deaths.\u00a0 Even our own Sydney University<\/a> asserts that patients still suffer impairment up to 5-7 hours after inhaling cannabis, and longer if ingested.\u00a0 Such conclusions come from tests done with minimal cannabis dosing (~10mg), in contrast to\u00a0 REMS<\/a> pharmaceutical drug testing where conclusions are drawn from maximum dosing –\u00a0internet chats by medical cannabis patients commonly discuss dosing of 40-500mg per day.\u00a0<\/p>

One crucial study found that cannabis users have entirely unrealistic self-awareness of their impairment<\/a>, most thinking it subsided after 1.5 hours.\u00a0 Of critical importance is that US NHTSA data<\/a> from 2022 on THC-involved crashes shows that peak times are during the morning commute and afternoon post-work commute, both when cannabis is more likely to be recently consumed by patients, a very different pattern to alcohol.<\/p>

There are multiple factors that make medical cannabis and driving entirely unacceptable.\u00a0 Cannabis affects visual acuity<\/a> and stereoacuity while driving (for near and far distances) making staying in a lane difficult.\u00a0 It also affects visual-spatial<\/a> memory, complicating navigation.\u00a0 We know THC impaired drivers CANNOT multi-task <\/a>– where having music, a friend in the passenger seat or talking hands-free on a cell phone goes well beyond simulator testing.\u00a0 It is causal<\/a> in creating anxiety, as well as psychotic and mood disorders.\u00a0 Given that medication is most often<\/a> used daily multiple times, many patients will become, over time, ultimately susceptible to the same chronic brain impairment as chronic cannabis users, all of which have serious negative impacts on driving:<\/p>