Drug Driving Charges – Lawyers Melbourne
Drug driving legislation was introduced in the year 2000 to allow police to test driver’s involved in an accident, for drugs.
In 2003 parliament introduced legislation allow for random saliva testing, the equivalent of random breath tests, for drugs. The bill passed on December 2003. Initially it was rare for drug driving tests to be randomly conducted, but it is now commonplace.
In more recent years the legislation has become tougher to the extent drug driving now attracts mandatory periods of disqualifications off the road, varying depending on whether the person being charged has prior relevant matters.
Prior relevant matters, per section 48(2) of the Road Safety Act include previous drink driving offences. For the purposes of determining the mandatory disqualification period, section 50AA tells us that a matter under section 49 of the Road Safety Act will only be considered a prior matter in circumstances where there was a finding of guilt in relation to that matter 10 years prior to the offence date of the current offence.
More and more people are now being prosecuted for drug driving. Often people are using drugs 24 hours prior to driving and not realising that the drug is remaining in their system.
If you have been charged with drug driving and summoned to appear at court, you should call our office 03 8644 7322
If you have been provided a drug driving infringement notice from a police officer on the side of the road and accept that you are guilty but would like to avoid any licence disqualification then you need to contact us well before your court date to discuss your matter in detail.
See the links below for further information on specific charges.
