She wasn’t high or unsafe.

She took her prescribed medication the night before, slept well, woke up sober, and drove to work. But a roadside drug test picked up traces of THC in her saliva. Suddenly, her licence was gone.

That’s not a glitch. That’s the system, and it’s failing people.

Right now in NSW, you can lose your licence or even get a criminal record just because a saliva test detects residue THC. It doesn’t matter if you’re sober and driving safely; one random test is all it takes. 

This law doesn’t make roads safer. It punishes people for nothing.

Charged for residue not impairment

Most people don’t realise there are two drug driving laws in NSW.

In the legislation Section 112 targets impairment. Police have to prove you were actually under the influence. But in practice, they rely on Section 111,  a zero-tolerance rule that makes it a crime to drive with any trace of THC in your body, even if you’re stone cold sober. There’s no need for evidence of bad driving, risky behaviour, or actual impairment. A positive swab is enough to lose your licence.

Here’s the kicker: Section 111 already makes an exception for prescribed morphine – an opiate that can give a positive result in a saliva test. If police detect morphine, and the person has a prescription for it, then police won’t charge them under Section 111. They are only in trouble if they are actually impaired, and thus charged under section 112. But for cannabis? No such allowance. 

A set of evidence based rules for some medicines. Zero tolerance for others.

The current law isn’t about safety, it’s about stigma

Did you know that roadside drug tests can’t show if someone is actually impaired? They only detect THC, even if it’s days after use and you’re totally sober.

So when people say, “The law’s there to keep unsafe drivers off the road,” it’s just not true. The law they use isn’t about impairment or safety. It’s about punishing people who have trace THC, even if they’re fit to drive.

Worse, this isn’t just outdated policy. It’s completely disregarding the national evidence. Australia’s national Assessing Fitness to Drive guidelines explicitly acknowledge that THC impairment is temporary and typically lasts just 3–8 hours, depending on dose and method of use. 

Yet, both NSW and Victorian guidelines ignore this entirely. Instead, they instruct doctors to treat patients with a THC prescription as permanently impaired drivers, advising them to stop driving indefinitely and even suggesting doctors refer these patients for fitness to drive assessments – just because they’re using prescribed medication. 

This isn’t science, this is a policy choice that ignores evidence and unnecessarily restricts the lives of people who are safe to drive.

Safe drivers are being punished and no one is any safer

Thousands of people, including medical cannabis patients, are being penalised for driving safely. Some avoid or stop treatment altogether. Others switch to other drugs that might work less well for them or have worse side effects, like opioids.

Meanwhile, the NSW government still isn’t requiring prescribers to offer clear guidance on avoiding impaired driving, nor funding public education or research into better ways to assess impairment. Doctors are expected to advise patients to stop driving entirely, regardless of individual need, and police still have no consistent way to check sobriety.

This is not road safety. It’s a system in desperate need of reform.

NSW is stuck, and everyone else is moving on

Australia is now a global outlier. Among countries with legal medicinal cannabis, we’re one of the only still clinging to zero-tolerance drug driving laws, despite evidence showing that road safety risks from medicinal cannabis are similar or lower than many other prescription medications commonly allowed on the road.

In the UK and Germany, medical cannabis users are protected unless they show signs of impairment. 

In Israel, health authorities have gone further, introducing mandatory wait times – three hours after inhaled cannabis, six after oral – based on the evidence that impairment wears off, it doesn’t linger indefinitely. It’s a model that explicitly balances patient mobility with road safety. In Canada, THC blood limits apply, but only after someone shows signs of impairment. 

NSW is instead taking a lazy approach, just preventing people driving regardless of impairment. It’s also totally unfair. If THC shows up in your spit, you’re out of luck.

Even Victoria’s reforms don’t fix it:

Earlier this year, Victoria introduced a partial improvement. Drivers with a valid prescription who test positive for THC can argue their case in court, and a magistrate may waive licence disqualification, for their first ‘offence’.

But the offence still stands. You can be pulled over, test positive, face court, legal bills, stress, and stigma. There’s no guarantee the court will side with you.

It’s better than nothing, but it still punishes safe drivers and puts all the pressure on people who’ve done nothing wrong.

Victoria also released new clinical guidelines. But instead of reflecting the national guidelines recognising that impairment varies and fades, they maintain the blanket fiction that anyone prescribed THC is unfit to drive.

Safer roads need a serious approach

Everyone wants to be safe on the roads. But current drug driving rules catch people who used cannabis yesterday, not those who are actually impaired today. Testing for mere presence misses the point and punishes people who are sober and safe behind the wheel.

If we care about real road safety, we need a smarter system that prevents impaired driving without punishing the wrong people.

That means resourcing police to properly assess sobriety. It means educating the public, particularly medical cannabis patients, with clear, practical guidance. If you use your medicine as prescribed and wait the recommended time before driving, you should be safe to drive. 

And it means ending the farce that just testing saliva for the presence of THC a serious road safety measure.

Punishing sober people doesn’t help anyone

That’s why Unharm is speaking out. It’s time to move beyond lazy, unfair laws and take road safety seriously.

We’re building a movement to change these laws and build a smarter, safer system — but we need your voice too. This campaign will be won by calling out injustice, naming the system that’s failing, and building a movement that says:

• We want real safety, not punishment dressed up as policy.
• We want drug driving laws that reduce risk, not just reinforce stigma.
• We want education, evidence and fairness. The failed war on cannabis must end.

Want to know how you can help? Take our Change maker Quiz below to find your place in this campaign and join Unharm to push for real reform.

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