New South Wales Premier Chris Minns has offered his strongest signal to date that roadside drug testing laws affecting medicinal cannabis patients will be put on the agenda at the state's drug summit scheduled for later this year.
Appearing before a portfolio committee chaired by Legalise Cannabis MP Jeremy Buckingham, Minns acknowledged the hardships facing patients and said he "expects" the issue to come up at the summit.
When Buckingham pressed him on the unfair position of patients prohibited from driving simply because THC is detectable in their system, Minns said he "accepts the literature that suggests impairment and detection are separate issues."
"They are not the same, detection will exist longer than impairment," he said. "The challenge for the government is there is no test for impairment. But there are over 300,000 people in the state who currently have a prescription for medicinal cannabis… and if they want to use a car while accessing the health benefits of… medicinal cannabis, they can't do it.
"One of the reasons we are pursuing a drug summit is to look at issues in the law like this and I expect that [it] will look specifically at this issue."
Earlier in the session, Minns said he would be comfortable getting into a car with Buckingham, who disclosed that he had taken medicinal cannabis the previous evening.
"Do I seem impaired to you?" the Legalise Cannabis MP asked.
"No, you seem very sharp," Minns replied.
The drug summit is scheduled across four days, with two days in regional NSW in October and two further days in Sydney on December 4 and 5.
