An accountancy student who took cannabis to help her sleep has been banned from the roads after she was caught in charge of a vehicle with the drug still in her system.
Emma Ross was not someone who typically used the drug, Inverness Sheriff Court was told, but had taken it as a sleep aid the night before she encountered police officers in the city in January of last year.
The 24-year-old pled guilty to being in charge of a vehicle while above the legal drug drive limit for cannabis.
Fiscal depute Hilary Michopoulou told the court that the incident, on Carsegate Road, Inverness, occurred on January 10 last year just after 8pm.
‘Her eyes appeared glazed’
She said: “The police had reason to approach the accused’s car. While speaking with her they smelled cannabis in the vehicle and her eyes appeared glazed.”
As a result, the officers carried out roadside tests. A breath test for alcohol came back negative but Ross had a positive result for cannabis on a drugs test.
Further testing revealed her level of delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol to be 3.7 microgrammes per litre of blood – the legal limit is 2 microgrammes.
Solicitor Rory Gowans, for Ross, told the court that his client was studying accountancy at the University of the Highlands and Islands and that she was “not somebody who ordinarily uses cannabis”.
Student ‘shocked’ at cannabis in her system
He said: “She had, at the time, been using it to help her sleep.
“She was in a great deal of shock that it was still in her system the next day.”
He told the court that, following the incident, Ross had had her driving license revoked by the DVLA in December of last year.
Sheriff Margaret Neilson banned Ross, of Glendoe Terrace, Inverness, from the roads for three months and imposed a fine of £320.
