Impairment based legislative limits for driving under the influence of non-alcohol drugs: the Norwegian experience

Driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) or alcohol represents an important risk factor for traffic accidents. For alcohol, Norway has since 1936 practiced impairment based legislation, with a legal limit presently at 0.02 per cent. For drugs other than alcohol, an individual evaluation of impairment was previously made in each case. This system was time consuming and expensive, and has probably been practised in a more lenient fashion as compared to alcohol cases. To harmonize the current practice for driving under the influence of alcohol and non-alcohol drugs, legislative limits were introduced for non-alcohol drugs in Norway from February 1st 2012. This paper presents the new legislative limits in Norway and status after about 1.5 years’ experience. Impairment limits, representing drug concentrations in whole blood likely to be accompanied by a degree of impairment comparable to blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) of 0.02 per cent, were established for 20 psychotropic drugs. Limits for graded sanctions, representing drug concentrations in blood likely to induce impairment comparable to BACs of 0.05 per cent and 0.12 per cent, were defined for 13 of the 20 substances. Such limits enable the court to mete out sanctions based solely on the measured drug concentrations, thus reducing the need for expert statements. After introducing the new legislation, a slight increase in the number of DUID cases has been seen in Norway. The total number of cases in 2012 was about 8600 compared to about 7800 for the two previous years.

• Record URL:
  http://www.icadtsinternational.com/files/documents/2013_125.pdf
• 
• Authors:
  • Vindenes, V
  • Sloerdal, L
  • Moerland, J
• Conference:
  • International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (T2013), 20th, 2013, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
• Publication Date: 2013-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 747-52
• Monograph Title: 20th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety Conference Proceedings, 25-28 August 2013, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Brisbane, Australia

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Blood alcohol levels; Drivers; Drug effects; Drugged drivers; Drugs; Law enforcement; Legislation
• Uncontrolled Terms: Safe systems (road users)
• Geographic Terms: Norway
• ATRI Terms: Blood alcohol content; Drug driving; Drug effects; Law enforcement; Legislation
• ITRD Terms: 1534: Enforcement (law)
• Subject Areas: Security and Emergencies; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01500810
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: Dec 5 2013 8:49AM