ULTERIOR MOTIVE FEARED IN RANDOM DRUG TESTING

THE State Opposition has accused the Government of introducing random
roadside drug testing as a means of controlling drug use rather than
promoting road safety.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Alannah MacTiernan said she was
suspicious that the initiative came from the WA Drug Abuse Strategy
Office rather than the Office of Road Safety.

Yesterday, The West Australian reported that the State Government was
considering introducing random testing and penalties for driving under
the influence of drugs.

Although Victoria announced at the same time that its police will test
motorists for drugs under laws to be introduced next year, WA is
waiting for new technology to be developed which would allow police to
issue roadside saliva tests to drivers.

WA wants the saliva tests to detect if motorists had used drugs,
including marijuana, amphetamines and tranquillisers.

Ms MacTiernan said she was concerned the tests would result in more
young people being charged for cannabis offences, even though research
had shown that marijuana use did not increase the risk of road accidents.

"There have been very complex studies that have been done which show
that those people who have cannabis in their bloodstream actually are
less culpable than drivers that are drug free," she said.

"Around Australia and around the world people are moving away from
criminalising minor cannabis offences but here we have a move which
clearly will end in many more young people ending up with criminal offences."

She said the other danger was that if drivers recorded drug test
results which indicated they had used drugs in the past, police could
use their name to produce a databank of known users.

"The worry is then that a person in that position becomes a known user
and who knows what could happen then," she said.

Curtin University addiction studies lecturer All Marsh said more
research was needed so that authorities could establish the levels of
drugs in a person's system that were or were not acceptable. But she
believed sobriety tests - where a person suspected of driving under
the influence of drugs was asked to walk a straight line or hop on one
foot - were a more appropriate way of measuring how capable people
were of being in control of a motor vehicle.

The Kennett Government plans to make it an offence to drive with a
drug equivalent of 0.12 blood-alcohol concentration or more.

The Victorian police will ask suspected drugged drivers to undertake
old-fashioned, walk-the-line sobriety tests followed by blood and
urine tests.

A Government spokesman said illegal and prescription drugs figured in
the deaths of more than a third of Victorian drivers in the first six
months of last year.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady