Paul:
Now let’s go to Harry who is in Shoreham and wants to talk about his driving rights. Harry.
Harry:
Good morning, thanks for taking the call. I had several spinal surgeries and as a result I’m an OxyContin user, legally, and I take a nerve suppressant. I’ve been doing it for ten years. Now there’s a case we were discussing socially about somebody who was held for manslaughter for driving under the influence of alcohol and the question came up in regards to my rights and would I if I had an accident, if it got to where I’d killed a person would I be charged for murder or manslaughter because my blood level is above the legal limit.
DW:
There’s no alcohol in OxyContin.
Harry:
The alcohol as an example. The OxyContin, the opiate in my blood is above the legal limit for driving.
DW:
The question is whether or not it’s a contributing factor to the accident. Right? What happens is you get charged with the use of the motor vehicle and the question will be were you at the appropriate degree of negligence? Did you recklessly cause the death of another person? Were you negligent?
Harry:
Well take the example of me at night hitting a motorcyclist in the darkness while I’m driving and that I killed that person.
DW:
Yes.
Harry:
They’ll take my blood and they’ll see that the opiate and the nerve suppressant that I take is above the legal limit, would I be charged for murder?
DW:
The answer I think Harry is no: but I’ll give you a better answer next week. And the issue of concern to me is whether or not there is an automatic presumption of negligence in the circumstances you’ve described. I don’t think there is. But if the evidence is that the consumption of those drugs has an impact on your driving ability, then you might need to modify your driving style or hours of operation or whatever to reflect that impairment.
Paul:
Harry, does it make you a worse driver? Do you feel like it impairs your ability to drive when you’re on OxyContin?
Harry:
I don’t think so, but I’ve been on it for ten years. I’m a flat-line as my pharmacist tried to explain to me. My pharmacist said that I’m above the level but he said it’s a flat line because I’m taking a controlled release drug.
DW:
Harry, listen next week and I’ll tell you.
Harry:
Okay.
Paul:
Be careful on the road too, and that doesn’t just go for Harry. David before you go we will be discussing again shortly the Greens proposal to legalise the sale of cannabis. The Greens are making it a health issue. Do you think legalising cannabis would ease pressure on the courts? A question without notice.
DW:
I actually think it would create a million other problems.
Paul:
Yes. I’m just asking legally now.
DW:
What we’re going to do is we’ll lose some possession charges and we’ll lose some trafficking. There will still be trafficking charges because there will be some people that will reckon they can offer a better service than the government; so there will still be trafficking. There will be no possession charges. My view is that it’s a mind altering drug, that there are circumstances in which its use is warranted but as a general recreational drug I reckon the price to the community is simply too high and there would be I reckon significantly more court cases rather than less.
Paul:
Okay, well that’s an interesting one to that argument that it would ease the pressure on the courts. David, thank you very much. It’s the first time I’ve chatted with you in the studio; but I listen every week and I think it’s an amazing service that you provide.
DW:
Thank you very much.
Paul
Thank you.