New Zealand’s National Party led Government enacted legislation last week to put a stop to “Boy Racing” and “Cruising” around streets repeatedly. Last night’s legislation is the last step before this act becomes law and the government intends pushing it through Parliament under urgency in the next fortnight.
This sounds good but -
they added a the last-minute inclusion of a ban on driving while affected by benzodiazepine, a prescription sedative and anti-anxiety medication that is often used as a sleeping pill. Not only as a sleeping pill, the effect of which wears off overnight, but also taken before air travel and other events that cause anxiety in many people.
The list of drugs in the class “Bendodiazepine” is long and includes the well known, commonly used (especially by older people) simple, anti-anxiety agents, Diazepam (Valium), Oxazepam (Serepax, Alopam), and Lorazepam (Ativan), along with the stronger hypnotic and/or skeletal muscle relaxants, Triazolam (Halcion) and Tetrazepam (Mylostan). The time to peak blood concentration for the anti-anxiety agents I’ve listed is 1-2 hours with the elimination half life being 10 to as long as 100 hours. That’s how long they can be detected in your blood.
This change to, in my opinion, a previously excellent piece of legislation is frightening in that it’s been added without public consultation as a Supplementary Order Paper. So many people are affected by this yet have not been allowed to voice an opinion! This act is now law and regular folk could be breaking the law by driving to the shopping centre after a good night’s sleep, all because they took a low dose relaxant like Lorazepam at supper time. Airport lounges and Airlines might find alcohol becoming more popular as business people and travellers look to relax while flying (and remain within the legal limits) and can no longer take a simple anti-anxiety tablet without possiblybreaking the law when they pick up a rental car at their destination.
In New Zealand we live in a democratic society – yeah, right! This government has behaved as a dictatorship in this instance as the people have not had a say and have, in effect, had their democratic rights and free will taken away.
The New Zealand Act Party have done a good job, putting this into perspective.
http://www.act.org.nz/blog/benzodiazepine-ban-short-sighted
Yes, benzodiazepines do have an effect on you which is why they are used for anxiety, panic attacks, sleep disorders, and related problems and they are a simple drug, that in low dose, actually works.
An email reply to a letter sent by a friend to Hon Steven Joyce, MP, states that people will only be breaking the law in regard to taking this class of drugs if they are driving while “affected” by it and they would only be tested if they were pulled over by Police for another reason. This sounds reassuring but where is the line, what is the definition of affected? There’s no definitive fail point as in alcohol testing.
It is my opinion that this legislation is seriously flawed and this will, in time, be shown in court cases where the defendant is shown to have a reading of benzodiazepine in their blood test and will be hard put to prove their driving was not adversely affected by it..
So, what next? Will simple antihistamines like Chlorpheniramine and diphenhydramine (Benedry) also be tested for and what about other anti-anxiety drugs, prozac and similar. Some will say I am over-reacting to a piece of legislation put in place to protect me but remember this law started being about reigning in “Boy Racers” and has ended up much wider in application and set under urgency thus removing my democratic right of submitting a comment or opinion before the it was passed into law.