Smell of cannabis in cars sparks call to crack down on West Lothian's drug drivers

Harry Cartmill, chair of Bathgate’s Local Area Committee raised the question at this month’s meeting as it was revealed that 300 more frontline officers would be trained to carry out drug tests.

Police should be more rigorous in enforcing drug driving, a West Lothian councillor has said.

Harry Cartmill, chair of Bathgate’s Local Area Committee raised the question at this month’s meeting as it was revealed that 300 more frontline officers would be trained to carry out drug tests.

Bathgate’s community sergeant told councillors it was “frustrating” that only roads policing officers are currently trained to carry out drug swipe tests.

Councillor Cartmill told this month’s meeting: “As a cyclist especially with this weather and people are driving with their windows down increasingly I smell cannabis coming from numerous cars.

“Is there a limit for cannabis? Is there a zero tolerance?”

He added: “Is there a move to have all police officers trained on this because I really do think it is a serious problem. These drivers are under some sort of influence, they are smoking cannabis.

“I’m not allowed to go out and have a couple of whiskies and drive my car so they are in the same position as I would be if I had a couple of whiskies. Is that something that Police Scotland will put more resources into?”

Sergeant Jamie Duthie said: “ I completely concur with what you are saying. I smell it all the time myself”.

He explained current practice: “The car would be stopped and searched initially and action would be taken if anything is found.

“What would then happen is we would ask our roads policing colleagues to come down and carry out a drug swipe, a mouth swab. If that shows positive for anything obviously further action would be taken then.

“The only people trained at the moment are roads policing [officers], which is frustrating because I’m sure when people are being stopped and there’s no roads policing available then we are probably missing some opportunities on that occasion.

“There’s zero tolerance on the mouth swab.”

It was revealed last week that Police Scotland is planning to crack down on drug drivers by training over 300 extra frontline officers to carry out specialised roadside tests.

Police Scotland estimates the move will enable around 700 drug-wipe samples to be sent for testing every month - the equivalent of 8,400 tests a year.

The cost to taxpayers will be more than £1.4million, but senior officers claim the move will have “a positive impact on road safety”.

A force report admitted that the long term goal of a force-wide roll out of drug-wipes would require the support of “significant investment” in forensic services to cope with the scale and nature of drug-driving..

The incremental roll-out is scheduled to begin in October and continue in April and October next year before concluding in April 2027, by which time 315 officers - or 3.2 per cent of frontline police - will have gone through the training course.

The move was revealed after a successful roadside drug wipe pilot scheme in Shetland in December, which ran for a nine-month period.

Officers carried out 30 tests with 15 positive results. All of those caught drug driving were local residents.

Proving a driver was above specified drug limits is much more expensive and resource intensive than for drink driving, with single drug wipe costing £17 and outsourced forensic testing £266 per sample.

Offenders face severe penalties, with a drug driving conviction resulting in three to 11 penalty points or a driving ban of at least one year.

Guilty drivers also face fines of up to £5,000 and six months in prison or a combination of those penalties.

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