Call for drug-driving rehab course after Inverness motorist caught in Avoch

A senior lawyer has appealed for the government to consider a rehabilitation and educational scheme for drug users, as is afforded to drink-drivers.

Currently, sheriffs can certify people caught driving with excess alcohol and receiving a statutory disqualification to take part in a self-funded drink-drive rehabilitation programme.

If they successfully complete it, the offenders can get a 25 per cent discount on their ban.

But no such facility is available to drivers caught with drugs still in their system.

Solicitor advocate Neil Wilson was representing a client who had been caught by police driving with cannabis and cocaine metabolites in his system in Avoch on July 18, 2022.

Stuart Mackenzie, of Birchfield Court, Inverness admitted both offences. The safe driving limit for cannabis is 2mcgs and Mackenzie had a reading of 2.4mcgs.

But his reading for a cocaine derivative was over five times the safe level – with a reading of 280mcgs when the limit is 50mcgs.

He was fined a total of £640 and banned from driving for a year.

Mr Wilson said: "I have said in open court before that if there was such a thing as a drug-driving rehabilitation course, I would be asking for him to be put on it. If nothing else, apart from earning him a discount on his ban, it would provide information on how long drugs stay in the system."