Prescription Drugs and Driving

Drug Driving & Prescription Medication

Prescribed limits don’t just exist for illegal drugs, they exist for prescription medication too. If a blood reading above the prescribed limit has been provided, the police will charge you with drug driving. If convicted, the minimum disqualification period is 12 months.

If you’re taking medication as prescribed by your doctor, you should be safe to carry on driving as normal.

Drug Driving Medication Defences

The government is unable to provide any guidance on what the new drug driving limits actually mean. There are too many variables.

A  medical defence is available for those drivers who have been taking medication as directed by their doctor but are found to be over the drug driving limit.

However, the burden to establish this defence is placed upon the defence. This means that we must present some evidence that the drug is being used as advised (such as a prescription, leaflet etc…). Once we have discharged this evidential burden, it then falls on the CPS to disprove our defence ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’.

Which Prescription Drugs Can Lead To A Drug Driving Charge?

The law sets a specified blood limit for eight prescription and controlled drugs. If a test puts you over the limit, you’ll be charged, even if your driving wasn’t affected and even if the drug was prescribed properly.

Benzodiazepines: Diazepam, Clonazepam, Lorazepam, Temazepam

Benzodiazepines are prescribed for conditions like anxiety, insomnia, muscle spasms and seizures. Four have their own limits:

• Diazepam: 550µg/L
• Clonazepam: 50µg/L
• Lorazepam: 100µg/L
• Temazepam: 1,000µg/L

These limits are well above any normal therapeutic dose, so a positive test doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve done something wrong. Your case usually turns on whether you can prove the drug was prescribed and you took it as you were instructed.

We act as diazepam driving solicitors and clonazepam driving solicitors for clients across England and Wales and we know how to build a strong medical defence. You can check the legal limits for these prescription drugs.

Methadone

Methadone is used to deal with opioid addiction. Its legal limit is 500µg/L. If you’re on a methadone maintenance programme and following your prescription properly, the medical defence can apply like it would for other prescribed drugs.

These casually use hang on evidential details, like was your sample taken correctly and whether your reading reflects your prescribed dose. As methadone driving solicitors, we request the full disclosure pack in your case. We often find procedural errors in how samples are taken or tested, which can be enough to get your case dropped.

Codeine and opiate-based painkillers

Codeine doesn’t have its own specific legal limit. It’s tested against the morphine limit (because codeine converts into morphine in your body as it’s metabolised) which is 80µg/L.

This trips a lot of people up when all they’ve done is take a prescribed or over-the-counter painkiller and ended up over the limit. This is because just a normal dose of codeine is enough to move you close to, or over, the morphine limit.

As specialist codeine driving solicitors we know how to challenge a morphine reading where codeine explains the result.

You can read our guide to prescription medication and driving to understand how common painkillers affect a drug test.

What if your blood result is higher than expected?

There is always the possibility that your results are above the limit, despite you taking the ‘correct’ dose of medication.

Any given drug’s presence in your system is often measured by its ‘half-life’. This is the period of time required for the amount of drug in your system to be reduced by one-half. Most drugs, whether illegal or not, will have been completely eliminated after 24 hours. But what if the drug remains in your system for longer than usual, putting you at risk of being caught drug driving?

Urine, like other body fluids, can be either acidic or alkaline. Interestingly, the Ph-level of your urine can affect the length of time is takes to excrete a substance. Alkaline urine can double the amount of time it takes for a drug to leave your system.

What makes my urine alkaline?

• A diet rich in fruit & vegetables
• Kidney disease
• Respiratory conditions
• Drugs such as Prozac, acetazolamide, sodium bicarbonate and potassium citrate
• Urinary Tract Infections

If you require drug driving solicitors, contact M.A.J Law today.