Chris Minns is taking an uncharacteristic risk with new drug driving laws

When someone I know began undergoing chemotherapy treatment after a bowel cancer diagnosis a few years ago, they were swamped by friends dropping off care packages: frozen meals, books, comfortable socks, and a significant quantity of illicit marijuana.

The cannabis came in various guises, but probably the most useful was a jar of weed-infused honey. A teaspoon stirred into a cup of tea had the effect of dampening the nausea caused by the chemo and helped them sleep.

But the relief was tempered by inconvenience. It meant not being able to drive themselves to oncologist appointments the next day, for example.

They never bothered getting a prescription. The strange, quasi-legal status of cannabis in Australia meant that while they were eligible to take it with a doctor’s consent, there was basically no point. Unless the police broke down the door and raided the pantry they weren’t going to get caught, and a prescription wouldn’t have helped with driving.

Which gets to the problem the NSW government’s proposed changes to drug driving laws grapples with. The strange, quasi-legal status of cannabis, coupled with, let’s be honest, its widespread use among some subsections of the population, means our road laws have not kept up with reality.

Last week, Premier Chris Minns announced a significant overhaul of driving rules in NSW to address this. Under the changes, people with cannabis prescriptions will be offered a medical defence and be subjected to a three-strike impairment test.

Anyone who registers a medicinal marijuana prescription with Transport NSW and records more than 50 nanograms of THC per millilitre of saliva in a roadside test will get a warning and a 24-hour driving ban. If they receive three warnings they will receive a fine and a minimum three-month licence suspension.

The policy hasn’t been universally popular. Opposition leader Kellie Sloane is among those who point to a lack of scientific consensus about what level of THC reliably measures driver impairment, while raising concerns about the explosion of cannabis prescriptions in Australia.

Minns, as premier, has largely avoided the type of policies which tend to whip up opposition on his right, but has now taken some significant steps on drug policy, including a pill-testing trial and changes to low-level drug possession which keep more offenders out of the courts.

He’s always done so cautiously, often quietly, and usually while stressing the limits of the change. When the government announced the pill-testing trial, for example, it came after Minns had spent months questioning its e