Help..Drug Driving Case

[ben_li]

I wanted some advice and guidance please.

I am a sciatica patient who has undergone surgery and still suffers from severe back and leg pain. I have been using cannabis to manage my symptoms for almost a decade, although until recently I did not have a prescription.

Last March, I was stopped for a routine roadside drug test and it showed that I had used cannabis earlier in the day. The police took a blood sample and I am still awaiting the results.

If the results come back over the legal limit, the police have indicated that they may proceed with a drug-driving charge. At the time I was stopped, I did not have a medical cannabis prescription. However, from April onwards I have been prescribed medical cannabis through a licensed clinic and am now a legal medical cannabis patient.

I appreciate that my current prescription does not change my circumstances at the time I was stopped, but I am wondering whether anyone else has been in a similar situation and what the outcome was. Did obtaining a prescription shortly afterwards have any relevance to your case, or was it treated entirely based on your circumstances on the date of the stop?

I am also interested to know whether there are any doctors or clinics that can provide retrospective medical evidence regarding a long-standing condition and historic cannabis use, or whether retrospective prescriptions simply do not exist. My understanding is that prescriptions cannot usually be backdated, but I would welcome any experiences or advice from those who have been through a similar process.

I am currently considering obtaining legal representation and would appreciate hearing from anyone who has faced a comparable situation, particularly where cannabis was being used to manage a genuine medical condition prior to obtaining a formal prescription.

Thank you in advance for any advice or guidance.

Ben

 

[joint_account]

Morning @ben_li

Welcome to MedBud, I'm sorry to read about what you're dealing with, it must be incredibly stressful.

I have no experience or legal insight into any of this so please take anything I say with huge pinch of salt.

Over the years Ive been an MC patient I've seen similar stories to yours crop up all over the place, specifically on Reddit. Usually its someone asking if getting a script would help their case, so its slightly different but I feel similar enough. Typically the response is it won't help, ultimately the offence pre-dates the script and outside of showing medical intent in how you use it, the offence was committed without the defence a script gives you and therefore it won't have any affect, there may be some leniency if you can document you were looking at medical before the offence, otherwise it looks like you've gone medical to provide a defence. - I think you should probably prepare yourself for a worst case scenario and your license being suspended for a period of time. If your record is clean you may escape with less.

I would strongly advise you to speak with your clinic, they exist as an advocate for you as a patient, they will at minimum be able to tell you if they can assist. if they cannot it likely tells you what the outcome may be.

It's in your best interest in my opinion to seek some legal representation but be aware many solicitors won't touch MC, much less a case where it gets a bit muddy with illegal usage. If you do find someone willing to take the case that would be amazing and it would be wonderful if you could let us know how that all plays out, for future patients' sake.

Good luck with it all, I hope the outcome is favourable to you and more so, congratulations on obtaining things legally.