Drug safety experts have applauded the Government's delay of random roadside drug testing after it was revealed the saliva kits that would be used don't exist.
The new policy was set to be rolled out on March 11 and would have seen police using oral fluid testing kits to determine if someone was impaired by drugs while driving. The policy was a part of the 2040 Road to Zero strategy.
However, it was revealed the policy had been pushed back, with Road to Zero director Bryan Sherritt saying "an appropriate device could not be found following the procurement and testing process".
The move has been praised by drug safety experts, who appreciate that the Government is taking time to revisit the policy to align with the accuracy standards they hoped for.
Know Your Stuff's Casey Spearin told 1News she was "pleased" by the announcement, saying the technology used in tests overseas was problematic.
"Obviously we're pleased that they're able to make a turnaround on this and admit the tech doesn't exist yet.
"We were quite concerned about the tech being rolled out and not meeting our standards."
She said the low accuracy of the tests and the fact they could only determine if drugs were in someone's system, rather than if they were impaired, would mean a lot of people would be punished for doing nothing wrong.
"We looked at the data, especially from overseas, and saw the risk of false positives is quite high, the risk of false negatives is also quite high."
In the Regional Public Health submission on the policy, the organisation quoted a study on the Dräger DrugTest 5000, which found the tests were only accurate 80% of the time, which meant one in five tests would produce a false negative or positive.
"The projects recommended that devices should have a minimum sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 80% or higher for all drugs tested, with recommendations of 90-95% accuracy for some specific drugs," the submission read.
"A 2019 systematic review of devices (S.C.D. Dobri, 2019), showed that none of the devices available meets these recommendations."
Spearin said that while Know Your Stuff wants to see drug drivers off the road, they want a more science-based solution.
"While we do absolutely support ways of getting drug drivers off the roads — it's dangerous — we just want to see whatever measures are being taken to do that are evidence-based and based on science rather than taking action without making sure it's going to have the effects that we want."
Across the ditch in Victoria, roadside drug testing has been in place since 2004. Know Your Stuff said the number of deaths caused by drug driving hasn't gone down.
It said the number of deaths was "all over the show".
In Victoria in 2018 there were 213 deaths, in 2019 there were 266, and in 2020 211 people were killed. There were 232 drug-driving related fatalities in 2021.
Another issue drug safety groups had with the Government's policy was that it also targeted prescription medication and could show a positive even if the driver wasn't impaired.
Sarah Helm from the NZ Drug Foundation said postponing it was the right decision as the science was not yet clear. (Source: Breakfast)
"The kinds of medicines, tramadol, Xanax, lorazepam and prescription CBD, you might have had some of that on board the previous day and it's still come up in your system and you're not actually impaired at all," The Drug Foundations Sarah Helm told Breakfast this morning.
"If that happened to innocent people, you would then not be able to drive for a period of time and be fined."
She said postponing the tests was the "right decision".
Both organisations are hoping the policy's delay will allow the Government to make changes, ensuring it achieves its main goal — getting impaired drivers off the road.
"The best thing to do now is for New Zealand to become a world leader in this space," Helm said.
"If New Zealand were to develop an impairment test that was suitable at a roadside, say on an app or something, it would be world-leading.
"It would also have really useful purposes in places like workplaces, where they are calling for better science."
Spearin said Know Your Stuff hopes the updated policy will show high-accuracy results, and be based on science.
"We would like to see, whatever solution is proposed, that it has a very high accuracy rate for judging impairment and not just presence.
"Impairment is what impacts safety, so we want to see a sensible solution."
She wants to see improvements made to the legislation as the tests could be reintroduced if there's a change in government or mood.
"We would like to see some amendments pretty soon here, that require rigorousness."
In the meantime, Waka Kotahi said police will continue roadside impairment tests, with blood tests taking place in labs.
In 2021, 128 people died in New Zealand as a result of drug driving.
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