Cannabis Smoking Truck Driver Keeps Licence After Appeal to the Crown Court.

This driver, represented in the Crown Court by Barrister Harry Bowyer (SBC did not act in the Magistrates’ Court), appealed his disqualification for Drug Driving. He had given a ride to a friend who had offered him roll up cigarettes on their journey down south. The driver accepted the cigarettes and having smoked a couple began to be aware of the smell of cannabis in his cab. (The least said about smoking in the workplace the better). The friend told him that the cigarettes did not contain cannabis. The drug test, conducted when the driver stopped for his break, suggested otherwise.

The driver’s previous solicitors unsuccessfully argued special reasons in the Magistrates’ Court as to why the driver should not be disqualified. The driver came to SBC to argue the appeal in the Crown Court. The driver was able to show through an analysis of his hair (in this case chest hair as that on his head was somewhat sparse) that he was not an habitual cannabis user over the period and the Judge and two Magistrates accepted that he had inadvertently consumed the cannabis. The disqualification imposed in the Magistrates’ Court was lifted.