Cannabis, Cocaine, Codeine: How Long Before You Can Legally Drive? “I Took It Yesterday — So I’m Grand, Right?” That’s the sentence I hear the most in drug driving cases. The person feels fine. They waited a day. Maybe two. They assume they’re safe to drive. But here’s what they don’t realise: You can still test positive. And if you test positive, the Gardaí can charge you. Even if you haven’t felt high in hours, or even days. Even if it was last night. Even if it was “just a

If people are aware of this, the ‘deterrence’ power of jail has been effective. In other words, the risk of jail helps people to ‘self-police’ while on the roads, without the necessity of having police officers standing on every street corner or sending scores of people to jail.

Section 109 (A) Road Traffic and Roads Act 2023 JAMES MAX IS a tv and radio broadcaster in the UK. He writes a regular column for the Financial Times. Recently he complained about the maintenance bill for his 50-year-old Rolls Royce. He described the model as a “Corniche convertible in silver mink”. When he bought it several years ago it cost “£60,000 with just over 75,000 miles on the clock”. It’s had its problems over the years. On one occasion “the brakes locked, engulfin

Pay attention... Meta description (Wondering what the penalty is for a first-time drink driving offence in Ireland? Find out the fines, disqualification period, and what factors affect sentencing) If you’ve been caught drink driving in Ireland for the first time, you’re probably worried about what happens next. The penalty for first-time drink driving offence in Ireland depends on how much alcohol was in your system when you were tested. Below, we’ll break down the current le

"If you have a few convictions for road traffic offences in the past then the calculus changes. As far as the courts are concerned, you’re not learning your lesson. So maybe jail is the appropriate sanction here?"

Plenty of people think that. You were speeding — maybe by a lot. But nobody got hurt. No accident. So why are you being charged with dangerous driving, a criminal offence that can get you banned for two years?

"Judges get a lot of criticism online (some of it deserved) but most of it is undeserved"...

Choose your words wisely

4 bottles of beer amounts to 8 “standard drinks” and will take 8 hours to process. That’s the minimum period that should pass before you attempt to drive.

Saying that you drank after driving is all very well and good. But the onus switches to you...

"Clothes maketh the man". And woman...

You may escape disqualification the first time. You won't the second time. The third time? You're looking at jail.

"Turning to Huhne the judge remarked that he had “fallen from a great height’ and that he was ‘somewhat- but not greatly in my view-more culpable” than his ex-wife. He had stronger words for his ex-wife."

Precision matters

Keep an eye on your wallet

Some drugs stay in your blood for a long time.

Cannabis & Driving in Ireland: How Long Before You’re Legally Safe? Q: How long after smoking cannabis can I legally drive in Ireland? A: That’s the wrong question — because there’s no clear answer. And that’s what makes cannabis one of the riskiest drugs when it comes to Irish driving law. Is there a legal limit for cannabis in Ireland? Yes. The legal threshold for cannabis (THC) is 1 nanogram per millilitre of blood. That’s not a typo, it’s one billionth of a gram. A trace

"In one scenario you’re driving at a time and a day when there is nobody around. In the other the reverse is the case. Even if there was nobody around it could still qualify as dangerous driving becasue it might be reasonable to assume that at that time of the day you would expect people to be there"

Cocaine Use Among Women in Ireland Has Soared 426% Cocaine use among Irish women is surging. The Health Research Board, an Irish government agency, reported in May 2025 that there’s been a 426% increase in women receiving cocaine treatment since 2017. That’s one of the sharpest rises in drug treatment statistics Ireland has ever seen. And it’s not just numbers on a page. "Irish people are the fourth largest consumers of cocaine worldwide" Behind each statistic is someone’s da

Why Do Different Judges Give Different Sentences in Ireland? Imagine facing a judge for the same crime in two different courtrooms. In one, you get one-year in prison. In the other? Ten years. Now imagine that the same judge makes different decisions depending on whether it is morning or afternoon, or Monday rather than Wednesday, or they haven’t yet had lunch. These are examples of what Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman calls ‘noise’: variability in judgements that should b