If you're driving, watch out.
THE PRIORY IS A rehab centre in London that has operated since the 1980’s. It treats people with drink and drug addictions. It’s the sort of place that famous celebrities go to, like Lilly Allen, Paul Gascoigne, Amy Winehouse, Kate Moss and George Best.
It presumably knows its stuff.
Like how long substances stay in your system.
"Most people don’t know this but if you break the law
while driving you can be required to provide a saliva sample.
That means that if you exceed the speed limit, drive without tax
or forget to indicate while turning, you can be stopped and
required to provide a sample of your saliva".
The Priory advise that unlike alcohol, cocaine stays in your system for stubbornly long periods of time.
While alcohol will generally pass out of your system within 12-24 hours of consuming it, cocaine tends to linger.
The danger with cocaine -besides the obvious health concerns- is its longevity in your system.
According to The Priory, cocaine stays in your blood for up to 2 days after consuming it. It’s the same for saliva. Its about 4 days for urine and about 90 days in a hair follicle.
Of course, for employees who are routinely subjected to urine tests at work the 4-day period will generate most interest.
But we’re only interested in the blood results here, because if the police detect it in your saliva they take a blood sample from you afterwards.
That’s after they arrest you first.
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Like alcohol there’s a number of factors that affect how long cocaine will stay in your system. But unlike alcohol, these factors are unique to drug-taking.
These include how much cocaine you have taken (the more you take, the longer it lasts), how often you take it (the more frequent you take it the longer it lasts), the method of taking it (snorted cocaine stays longer than cocaine that’s smoked) and whether you had consumed alcohol at the same time (taking cocaine with alcohol causes cocaine to stay longer).
What does all this mean?
IT MEANS THAT IF YOU encounter a checkpoint 24 hours after consuming alcohol you will likely not be over the limit.
But if you’ve been consuming cocaine, you will.
Most people don’t know this but if you break the law while driving you can be required to provide a saliva sample.
That means that if you exceed the speed limit, drive without tax, NCT or forget to indicate while turning, you can be stopped and required to provide a sample of your saliva.
I have represented clients who consumed cocaine on a Thursday night and been stopped for speeding on a Saturday afternoon. They’ve provided a saliva sample which has tested positive for cocaine.
They’ve been arrested, provided a blood sample and later been prosecuted for drug driving.
That’s worth thinking about.
The vast majority of judges are at least understanding of people who drink alcohol. To a point, obviously.
After all, human beings have been drinking alcohol for hundreds of years, so it’s at least familiar.
But judges are less understanding of people who consume drugs.
Less again if they decide to drive afterwards.
That’s worth thinking about too.
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