Police will begin stopping drivers nationwide from next Wednesday and swabbing their tongues to test for recent drug use – with those who fail looking at fines, demerit points and an instant 12-hour licence suspension.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop said drug-impaired drivers were a "menace on our roads" involved in around 30% of road fatalities. Police Minister Mark Mitchell said the tool would enable police to target a key contributor to death and serious injury on New Zealand roads.
"If you take drugs and drive, you are putting innocent lives at risk, and we will not tolerate it," Bishop said.
The programme has been piloted in Wellington since December last year, where around 3000 tests have been carried out and roughly 100 drivers have returned a positive result.
When it goes nationwide, police are aiming to conduct around 50,000 tests a year.
How will it work?
First, police swab a driver's tongue with a small device fitted with three absorbent pads. That screening test checks for cannabis, methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine, and takes a minimum of five minutes to return a result. If it comes back negative, you're free to go.
If the screening comes back positive, however, you'll be asked to provide a second, more comprehensive saliva sample, with a swab held in the mouth for up to 10 minutes to absorb enough fluid. While the roadside device screens for four drugs, the laboratory can test for up to 25 substances. Results take around two weeks.
A positive screening result also triggers a third roadside test, which police use to check for false positives.
Wellington District road policing manager Bradley Allen said if that third test was also positive, the consequences are immediate.
"The driver will be suspended for 12 hours and we'll seize the keys and in most cases we'll take someone home," he said.
If the third test comes back negative, drivers are free to go while police wait for the lab results.
What are the penalties?
If the lab sample comes back positive for a single drug, drivers face a $250 fine and 50 demerit points, issued by mail around two weeks after the stop. That rises to $400 and 75 demerit points if two or more drugs are detected.
Drivers who refuse to take a test at all face the same penalty as the higher tier: $400 and 75 demerit points.
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