A SCHOOL bus driver has denied he has taken cocaine and heroin.
He insisted he had never taken drugs, after testing positive for the two drugs in a random test.
The 32-year-old was arrested during a new drug driving campaign in Llucmajor, which is randomly testing bus drivers and monitoring vehicle conditions.
“The machine does not work, I have never taken drugs,” he insisted.
“I was left speechless, all I can say is that it’s impossible, I have never taken drugs and I have not smoked for more than ten years,” he added.
The driver was so incensed he actually paid for his own private drug test, which was negative, to prove his innocence after returning to the police station the next day.
“I understand parents do not want their children to be driven by a drug addict. The proof that I have not taken anything is here, in this test,” the driver insisted.
“Machines and people have made mistakes, this is clearly one of those,” he added.
He is now fighting a €1000 fine and six point deduction off his licence.
British TV presenter Angela Rippon tested positive for opiates after eating poppy seeds in a loaf of bread for an experiment for Rip Off Britain: Food series.
The test picked up the presence of morphine, derived from opium, after she ate a loaf of poppy seed bread and a poppy seed bagel over the course of three days.
The experiment came about after a man called the programme saying he had been fired from his job at a power station, after a routine drug test showed opiates in his system, despite him never taking drugs.
If poppy seeds, as in the experiment by Angela Rippon, can give a “positive” result; then probably a codeine painkiller would have a similar effect? Likewise Coca Cola still uses coca leaves for flavouring in it’s products. Although the narcotic element is removed, a “positive” result could still ensue from what remains.
So if this unfortunate bus driver washed down a headache tablet with a can of coke, a huge fine and job loss could be his lot.
Let’s hope, for everyone’s sake, he gets a savvy lawyer on his side and shows these “tests” up for their inaccuracies. Further to this topic, how about the innocent “positively” tested driver, who has unwittingly inhaled, passively, another persons cannabis fumes? He will be in danger of a “positive” test for up to three months after his encounter with a pot-smoker. Because that is how long cannabis traces can remain in the human system.
Time for a re-think on these test systems?