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Land Transport Act 1998

Land transport secondary legislation - Regulations

167AAB: Ministers may appoint independent experts for purposes of section 167AAA

You could also call this:

“Ministers can ask experts for advice about drug levels and driving safety”

You should know about a rule that allows certain Ministers to get help from experts when making decisions about drug levels related to driving. The Ministers of Transport, Police, and Science can choose one or more independent experts to give them advice. These experts need to know a lot about medicine and science, especially about how drugs work in the body.

The experts have two main jobs. First, they need to study the drugs carefully. Second, they need to tell the Ministers about how these drugs affect people and what levels of these drugs in the blood might be dangerous for driving.

When the experts suggest a “high-risk level” for a drug, they need to think about a few things. They look at how the drug affects people, what level might make it hard to drive safely, and what levels have been set for similar drugs.

The experts also need to suggest a “tolerance level” for each drug. This is a lower level that might show someone has used the drug recently, but probably isn’t enough to affect their driving. For medicines that doctors prescribe, the experts also think about the usual dose that people take.

The Ministers use this advice to help them make rules about drug levels for drivers. This helps keep roads safer by setting clear limits based on expert knowledge.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS835464.

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Part 11 Land transport secondary legislation
Regulations

167AABMinisters may appoint independent experts for purposes of section 167AAA

  1. The Minister of Transport, the Minister of Police, and the Science Minister (the Ministers) may from time to time appoint 1 or more independent experts to advise the Ministers on matters relating to setting and amending high-risk blood concentration levels and tolerance blood concentration levels for qualifying drugs under section 167AAA.

  2. The independent experts appointed under subsection (1) must together have appropriate expertise in relevant medical and scientific fields, including pharmacology and toxicology.

  3. The function of the independent experts is—

  4. to carry out medical and scientific evaluations of qualifying drugs; and
    1. to advise the Ministers on—
      1. the specific effects of qualifying drugs, including the pharmacological, psychoactive, and toxicological effects; and
        1. the appropriate high-risk levels and tolerance levels for qualifying drugs in accordance with subsections (4) and (5).

        2. In advising the Ministers on the appropriate high-risk level for a qualifying drug, the independent experts must take into account—

        3. the specific effects of the qualifying drug and the medical and scientific evaluations of the drug carried out under subsection (3)(a); and
          1. that the high-risk level specified for a qualifying drug should, as far as practicable, be a blood concentration level that, to the best of the independent experts’ knowledge, is likely to impair a person’s driving; and
            1. the high-risk levels specified, at the time of advising the Ministers, in Part 1 of Schedule 5 for other listed qualifying drugs and, in particular (where possible), for drugs with similar effects.

              1. In advising the Ministers on the appropriate tolerance level for a qualifying drug, the independent experts must take into account—

              2. the specific effects of the qualifying drug and the medical and scientific evaluations of the drug carried out under subsection (3)(a); and
                1. that the tolerance level specified for a qualifying drug should, as far as practicable, be a blood concentration level that, to the best of the independent experts’ knowledge,—
                  1. is likely to indicate that a person has recently used the drug; and
                    1. is unlikely to be exceeded if the person has such a low level of the drug in their blood (whether due to passive exposure or otherwise) that their driving is unlikely to be impaired; and
                    2. for a qualifying drug that is a prescription medicine, the maximum dose of the prescription medicine that is generally prescribed; and
                      1. the tolerance levels specified, at the time of advising the Ministers, in Part 2 of Schedule 5 for other listed qualifying drugs and, in particular (where possible), for drugs with similar effects.

                        Notes
                        • Section 167AAB: inserted, on , by section 37 of the Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Act 2022 (2022 No 5).