Greens Senator David Shoebridge has doubled down against roadside drug-testing after he was stopped while driving into Australia’s hippie capital.
Greens Senator David Shoebridge has enraged a Nationals MP after he doubled down on footage of his roadside drug test outside a notorious Northern Rivers town.
Greens Senator David Shoebridge has doubled down against roadside drug-testing after he was stopped while driving into Australia’s hippie capital. Mr Shoebridge filmed himself speaking with police outside of Nimbin, New South Wales, ahead of last weekend’s 'MardiGrass' event as authorities patrolled a main road outside of the town. In the clip, published during the week, Mr Shoebridge told enforcement he had not taken drugs, but would not tell them if he had.
Speaking with Sky News on Thursday, he backed the position and labelled roadside drug testing a"waste" of funds, enraging local Page MP Kevin Hogan.
“ a festival to seek to legalise cannabis across the country. And the police know... So they literally surround this little town of Nimbin. There's like three ways in and at each point there's a group of about 15 police,” Mr Shoebridge said.
Host Peter Stefanovic interjected, asking: “It’s literally a drug festival, so why wouldn’t they be there? ” Kevin Hogan and David Shoebridge clashed over roadside drug testing on Thursday. Picture: Sky News Australia.
“The issue is that under the roadside drug testing laws in Australia... they're not testing to see if you're impaired by cannabis,” he said. “But they stop anyone, and if you've had a joint a week ago, you're not impaired,” he said.
“If you've had a joint a week ago, and there's a tiny trace element of cannabis in your system, you face a $1,500 fine, compulsory loss of your licence, and you're taken off the streets – and that's not roadside drug testing, that's politics dressed up as roadside testing. ” He said other world nations combined drug testing with impairment-based testing and labelled Australia the “wild outlier”.
Nationals MP Kevin Hogan, whose electorate includes Nimbin, said he thought Mr Shoebridge’s position was “shameful”.
“You can argue whether it’s residual or impairment, but obviously these tests were also looking at impairment,” he said. David Shoebridge earlier in the week posted footage of an interaction he had with NSW Police conducting a drug testing operation. Picture: David Shoebridge / Facebook.
“If you’re stoned or you’re drunk, that was going to get picked up in that test. Now that road I know very well, that very road you were on, there’s been fatalities on that road.
"“There was one, not that long ago, a social worker... who was very popular; she worked, in fact, with my wife,” he said. “She was killed by someone who was impaired by drugs and alcohol. He was stoned and drunk. Now, if you're going to say that people shouldn't be tested for this, I'd like you to talk to some of the families about who've been... very affected.
” Mr Hogan also said he was uncertain whether residual drug traces did not translate to impairment.
“You might argue whether it be impairment or whether it just be residual in your system, I mean, I don’t know where the science is,” he said. “So are you saying that if people have residual drug things in their blood they can still drive, that it’s not harmful? I mean we need to have a discussion about that but your vision undermines and basically encourages people to show police disrespect.
” Roadside drug testing was introduced in 2007 in the state, testing for the presence of four drugs: THC, MDMA, crystal methamphetamine, and cocaine.
"All of these drugs are known to remain in a driver’s system after the effects of the substance have worn off. This is especially so for cannabis or THC, which can be traced in the body weeks after consumption," Sydney Criminal Lawyers have previously written.
"To establish that a defendant has committed the offence of drug driving, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the individual drove or attempted to drive a motor vehicle, whilst a prescribed illicit substance was in their saliva, blood or urine. So, there is no requirement to prove that the driver was impaired at time of testing, but only that traces were present in their system. "
Nimbin New South Wales David Shoebridge Police Kevin Hogan
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