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Request:
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act regarding the training, procedures, and guidance provided to officers in your constabulary concerning individuals using prescription medications, specifically medical cannabis users, who may be stopped while operating a vehicle.
Q1: Please could you provide copies of relevant training documents/excerpts that explain to officers how to manage situations where prescription medication users, generally or medical cannabis-specific, are stopped while operating a vehicle and would test positive, but their driving is not impaired?
Q2: Are alternative sobriety tests ever used, and under what circumstances? If yes, does this take into account the physical difficulties a prescription user may have? Please could you provide any supporting guidance or documentation about this given to front line officers.
Q3: Do your officers have any specific training around the use of prescription cannabis? Please could you provide a copy/excerpt of any relevant training or guidance.
Q4: Please could you provide excerpts of any guidance provided to front-line officers on procedures around prescription medication, particularly but not exclusively: Under what circumstances confiscation of prescription medication is reasonable Under what circumstances arrest of a prescription medication holder is reasonable What actions a police officer should take to verify if a prescription is genuine What actions a police officer should take when a member of the public raises legislation they are unfamiliar with?
Response:
Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information
To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police. I can confirm that some of the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.
Decision
I have decided to disclose the located information to you.
Q1. There is no information held by North Yorkshire Police however, you may find the links below useful.
Road Traffic Act 1988 (legislation.gov.uk)
Road Traffic Act 1988 (legislation.gov.uk)
Road Traffic Act 1988 (legislation.gov.uk)
Q2. Yes, alternative tests can be used and selected officers are trained to complete Preliminary Impairment Tests (also known as Field Impairment Tests) where they have a power (as given in S.6 RTA 1988) to conduct those tests. If a person performs poorly, they are liable to arrest for the Section 4 RTA 1988 offence of driving whilst unfit through drink or drugs. The fact someone is using prescription medication is irrelevant when conducting this test, as the test is designed to detect impairment (the drivers ability to drive is for the time being impaired) and if this impairment is caused by prescription drugs the section 4 offence may well be committed. There is no as outlined in Section 5A above when it comes to the section 4 offence. All that officers must prove is the fact that the person was impaired and that they had a drug in their body.
Q3. The information you have requested is published on the North Yorkshire Police website under the following link;
FOI Medicinal Cannabis (0318-2022/23) | North Yorkshire Police
I have therefore decided to exempt providing you with a response to question 3 pursuant to Section 21 Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act).
Section 17 of the Act requires North Yorkshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which: (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
Section 21 – Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means
Section 21 is an absolute class based exemption and I am not required to consider the harm or public interest when applying this exemption.
Pursuant to Section 17(1) of the Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice in response to your request.
Q4. North Yorkshire Police do not hold any information in relation to this part of your request, however you may find the information on the below link useful.
034-2023-cancard-information-for-police.-final.pdf (npcc.police.uk)
Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.