Drug driving charges in Queensland

Presence, not impairment

There are two separate drug driving offences in Queensland and they are commonly confused.

The first offence has no threshold. There is no equivalent of 0.05. Any detectable amount is enough, and the certificate from the laboratory is the case.

That is why the most common question we are asked on these matters has no good answer. There is no safe waiting period. Detection windows vary between people, doses and drugs. Telling the court you last smoked cannabis four days earlier is a mitigating fact, not a defence.

What roadside saliva testing detects

Queensland roadside drug testing screens for four relevant drugs:

• THC, the active compound in cannabis
• Methylamphetamine, covering speed and ice
• MDMA, the active compound in ecstasy
• Cocaine, added to the roadside testing regime and now routinely screened

A positive roadside screen is not the charge. The sample is sent for laboratory confirmation and the charge follows that result, which is why people are often charged weeks after being stopped. Your licence is suspended for 24 hours from the roadside test regardless.

A work licence is possible, but the criteria are narrow

A conviction for driving with a relevant drug present can support an application for a restricted work licence under section 87, unlike a driving under the influence charge, which cannot.

You still have to satisfy every other criterion: you must have held a Queensland open licence at the time and hold one when you apply, you must not have been driving in the course of your work, and you must have no licence suspension, cancellation or disqualification and no drink, drug or dangerous driving conviction in the previous five years. The court must also be satisfied that refusing would cause extreme hardship by depriving you of your livelihood.

The application has to be made in the same proceeding, before the disqualification is imposed. Read the full work licence eligibility walkthrough before your court date.

Where these charges are actually challenged

The offence is difficult to defend on the science, because presence is presence. The room to move is usually procedural or in sentencing.

• Chain of custody and analysis. The sample has to be taken, sealed, transported and analysed in accordance with the Act and the regulations. Certificates are presumed correct, but they can be challenged.
• Was the requirement lawful? Police powers to require a saliva specimen are not unlimited.
• Were you driving or in charge? Being asleep in a stationary vehicle is not automatically driving, but it may still be being in charge.
• Sentencing. A drug driving conviction on an otherwise clean history, with early rehabilitation, a treatment program and evidence about your work, routinely draws the minimum rather than the middle of the range.