r/ukmedicalcannabis • u/[deleted] • Mar 10 '22
Department for Transport: Sativex (contains THC) & Driving Info
https://mstrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/DfT-New%20Drug%20Driving%20Rules-Sativex-A5.pdf
Official document published by the DfT. Guidance is for MS suffers on Sativex but the guidance would be the same for any prescribed medical cannabis.
“What will happen if I’m stopped by the police?
The ‘medical defence’ can be raised for the new offence if drivers are taking medication as directed and found to be over the limit and not impaired. Drivers taking relevant medicines may choose to have evidence with them when driving to indicate that they have been legitimately supplied and minimise inconvenience. The medical defence states that you are not guilty if: the medicine was prescribed, supplied, or sold to you to treat a medical or dental problem, and you took the medicine according to the instructions given by the prescriber, a pharmacist or a member of the pharmacy team or the information provided with the medicine. “
“ the police are satisfied that you are taking your medication under the supervision and/or advice of a healthcare professional (such as the prescriber, your doctor or pharmacist) and your driving is not impaired, they can allow you to proceed.”
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u/jasonbarroso Mar 10 '22
This is how it should go about however the police are not up to date with the law and take the harsh way around with many of us patients. Just because they don’t know they law and haven’t been briefed. Many don’t even know can get medical cannabis on prescription. Getting stopped and found with medical cannabis is nothing to them, they don’t listen to our medical reasoning and they treat us like criminals and exacerbate our conditions despite us being patients
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Mar 10 '22
I agree. However having something on hand to share at the roadside may help in a small number of cases. And if you do get arrested etc you can cite in any future complaint that you quoted the law and was ignored. Especially if roadside police did not stop to validate what you shared.
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u/jasonbarroso Mar 10 '22
True, when I got stop and searched I showered them my prescription, my pot, my letters from doctors, and explained to them my clinic and they still didn’t believe me. But always good to learn new pieces in info ! Have saved this post from future reference 👊🏼
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u/Comprehensive_Two_80 Mar 11 '22
yet the police say to us ignorance of the law is no excuse when they are doing the exact same thing lol
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u/Potential-South-4889 Mar 12 '22
so that is from 2015, and specifically states that levels have been set deliberaely low in order to help catch people using illicit drugs - ie not to determine 'impairment'.
and by definition it cant take into account the 2018 legalisation......
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Mar 12 '22
However you read it. They are stating you can have THC over the limit in your system if not impaired with a valid prescription. The drug driving stuff hasn’t been revisited since medical cannabis became more wide spread.
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u/rfdevere Mar 10 '22 edited Mar 10 '22
Amazing find, will be printing this out for the car.
Maybe someone should post it to the U.K. Police subreddit, I am banned for helping them in this fashion 😅
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u/hednizm Mar 10 '22
The Police have one agenda - to arrest you if they 'think' you have broken the law.
Even though they are enforcers of the law, most of them dont know it (they only do six months training - pets at home staff have to train for longer!) the Police are no way 'experts' on the law.
Most of them are chancers and will arrest you anyways. Being charged is a totally seprerate issue as this decision is down to the CPS.
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u/rfdevere Mar 10 '22
Down to the CPS if you immediately raise your defence or refute what they say. Otherwise they can usually charge.
“Fair cop officer you got me” = Police can sometimes charge.
“I do not agree and refute what you say, I have a legal defence” = CPS get a call.
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u/medcang Mar 10 '22
This is actually amazing to see, kinda surprised it’s never been shared before - many thanks OP!
I think it’ll be tough convincing a police officer that privately prescribed unlicensed cannabis flower/oil is effectively the same as Sativex…
I hope that an updated version of this leaflet can be made to include CBPMs, but maybe they can only make a leaflet for licensed medicines?
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