The NSW Greens have renewed their push to reform the state's roadside drug-testing regime, introducing legislation that would give medicinal cannabis patients a legal defence when they return a positive THC reading without showing any signs of impairment.
Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann introduced the bill in the upper house, seeking to amend the Road Transport Act 2013, which she says is treating "thousands of people" as criminals.
Under current NSW law, any driver who tests positive for THC — including those holding a valid medicinal cannabis prescription and displaying no impairment — faces financial penalties and a mandatory licence suspension.
The proposed legislation would shield patients from those consequences, on the condition that the THC detected came from medication obtained and used in accordance with a legitimate prescription.
The Greens' latest push follows recommendations contained in the NSW Drug Summit report, which urged lawmakers to protect unimpaired medicinal cannabis patients from prosecution under driving laws.
It also follows recent reforms in Victoria, where magistrates have had the discretion to waive previously mandatory licence bans in such cases since March this year. Tasmania already has a comparable defence on the books.
The Greens put forward a comparable bill in 2021, but Faehrmann said the updated version contains one significant adjustment: the burden of proof now falls on the driver to establish that the only substance detected in their system was legally prescribed THC.
“During the inquiry into my bill in 2021, legal stakeholders said the bill needed clarity in terms of where the onus of proof lay,” she said.
Faehrmann said that additional research, policy development and reforms — including Victoria's legislative changes and the NSW Drug Summit's findings — had built a compelling case for action.
“The issue has been well and truly examined by experts and the ball is now in the government’s court to act,” she said.
“Different jurisdictions have different systems to determine whether people have to go to court and argue a medical defence before a magistrate, or whether they show a prescription and, if they are not impaired, police make that judgement on the side of the road.
“That is up to the government to look at. But it is well and truly time for change.”
