From Schedule 5 of the legislation:
- 3 ng/ml is the “high-risk blood concentration level” for THC.
- 1 ng/ml is the “tolerance blood concentration level” for THC.
What is the difference?
Medsafe says:
Schedule 5 has two blood concentration levels for each listed qualifying drug: tolerance and high-risk.
Exceeding the lower level (tolerance) is an infringement and could result in a fine or licence demerit points.
Exceeding the higher level (high-risk) could result in a criminal charge and the driver may be disqualified from driving or sentenced to prison.
To get an idea of what other countries are doing see https://www.ncids.org/2021/marijuana-impairment-faq/
How long can THC be detected in the blood after ingestion of marijuana?
“Low THC levels of a few nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) in blood can result from relatively recent use (e.g., smoking within 1 – 3 hours) when some slight or even moderate impairment is likely to be present, or it can result from chronic use where no recent ingestion has occurred and no impairment is present.” - Compton at p. 7.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to be on the road with a bunch of stoned people but it seems pretty bleak to me. A medical user could definitely hit 1ng/ml without being impaired.
There is another RNZ story on this from 11 Oct.
You’re right. They were looking for something like breath testing for alcohol. You can see that in the bill history.
On legislation.govt.nz, you can see the legislative history under the “View whole” tab.
Legislative history
If you go back through all the versions and amendments, you can see they originally tried to introduce a saliva test. The transport minister then recommended blood tests. One could speculate that was due to research and submissions.
Committee of the Whole House included amendments to use saliva only as an indicator of use, while relying on blood tests to measure levels. This enables officers to administer compulsory road-side oral swabs as a precursor to taking someone in for a blood test.
Section 71A “Who must undergo first oral fluid test”, which includes “a driver of, or a person attempting to drive, a motor vehicle on a road”. This enables random roadside testing without a specific reason. This was acknowledged as a violation of NZBORA which was deemed in the public interest by the Land Transport Act 1998.
So, if you drive a car in any mental state, get ready for the cops to stick stuff in your mouth.