A cannabis smoker has been banned from the road after being “caught out” by drug-driving laws and how long it stays in your system.
Michael Hanratty was stopped by police on the A92 by police officers who then detected a smell of cannabis.
The 21-year-old accepted he had smoked the drug the day before, but had not appreciated that he would be over the limit for driving still.
Fiscal depute Eilidh Gunn told Aberdeen Sheriff Court the incident happened around 4.35pm on January 21 on the A92 at Ellon Road and Silverburn Place.
Police pulled Hanratty’s car over and noticed a smell of cannabis.
Hanratty confessed to officers he’d smoked three joints the previous day and a test returned a positive result for the drug.
‘He thought he would be okay to drive’
Hanratty, of Mansefield Road, Aberdeen, pled guilty to driving with 5.6 microgrammes of a cannabis metabolite per litre of blood. The legal limit for driving is two microgrammes.
Defence agent Kevin Longino said his client appeared as a first-offender.
He said: “The offence speaks for itself. He’s a social user of cannabis and thought he would be okay to drive.
“Clearly he wasn’t.
“This is something that catches out a lot of people because cannabis stays in the system longer than other drugs and the statutory limit is so low.”
Mr Longino also highlighted that while drink-drivers have a rehabilitation course to educate them, no such programme exists for drug-driving.
Sheriff Ian Wallace fined Hanratty £420 and banned him from driving for a year.
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