Former magistrate feels vindicated by landmark cannabis study

A former magistrate who quit over NSW’s driving on cannabis laws says he feels vindicated by a landmark study that found those driving on CBD – the non-psychoactive chemical in cannabis – were not driving impaired.

David Heilpern resigned in June, telling Neil Mitchell he was “sick” of taking licences from people who had tested positive for driving on dope, but were clearly not a danger on the roads.

Often they’d used the drug several days earlier.

“For literally dozens of years, I was taking licences off people for driving with detectable levels of cannabis in their system, many of them who were on prescription for it,” he said.

“They’d lose their licence, they’d lose their job, they’d lose their family and I just couldn’t stomach it any more.”

He said Victoria was “leading the charge” in getting laws changed.

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