Driving licence withdrawal after drug use: abstinence records and reinstatement

Drug-related cases may involve two legal levels at the same time. Medical fitness asks whether the person can drive safely. Traffic reliability is a forecast based on defined facts and conduct. The authority decision should show which level supports the measure and which evidence is being assessed.

Section 7 FSG treats, among other matters, driving while impaired by drugs, certain serious offences under the Narcotic Substances Act and other traffic conduct as possible defined facts. A positive finding does not therefore produce one automatic withdrawal period in every case. The act, evidence, reasoning and legal classification still have to be identified.

The medical side is governed primarily by section 8 FSG together with the Driving Licence Health Regulation. A medical fitness assessment must not be replaced by a general assumption based on the mere existence of a test result.

Section 14 of the Driving Licence Health Regulation distinguishes several situations. Where a person is dependent on drugs or cannot restrict consumption sufficiently to avoid impairment while driving, a driving entitlement may generally neither be issued nor maintained. Where dependence is suspected, a specialist psychiatric statement is required.

A person who drove while impaired by drugs without being dependent must demonstrate fitness through a traffic psychological and a specialist medical statement. Where there was former dependence or repeated misuse, the regulation provides for a favourable specialist statement and medical monitoring conditions for a group 1 driving entitlement.

The regulation therefore sets different evidence routes, not one universal abstinence period. The specialist assessment must address the documented history, consumption pattern, findings and the precise question raised by the authority.

Under section 8(2) FSG, an official medical opinion is required where special findings or, because of conspicuous traffic-psychological behaviour, a statement from a traffic psychological examination centre is needed. The person concerned must provide the requested findings and statements. The opinion concludes with categories such as fit, conditionally fit, restricted fit or unfit.

A laboratory result and the official medical opinion therefore perform different functions. The result is evidence for a specific medical question. The opinion places the available findings within the statutory fitness assessment. Check whether the authority has requested exactly these findings and whether each statement is complete and current.

If the decision asks for a specialist psychiatric statement, traffic psychological examination or monitoring examinations, a general confirmation obtained independently will not necessarily prove compliance with the order.

Reinstatement is not merely a consequence of time passing. Section 24(3) FSG allows the authority to order accompanying measures or an official medical opinion. If an order, required findings or the necessary cooperation are not completed in time, the withdrawal period does not end before compliance under that provision.

Section 25(2) FSG links a withdrawal for lack of medical fitness to the period of unsuitability established by the opinion obtained under section 24(4). The file should therefore contain more than the test result: preserve the reasons, opinion, specialist statements, monitoring appointments and proof of when each item reached the authority.

The guide on conditions and authority records for reinstatement covers the general document structure. If the issue is a roadside measure during the withdrawal, the guide to the police roadside measure and continuing to drive addresses a different question.

An abstinence record is useful only if its purpose and required form are clear. First secure the complete decision or order. It should show whether a defined period, specialist statement, psychiatric assessment, traffic psychological examination or medical monitoring has been requested.

• complete withdrawal decision with reasons, attachments and remedy notice
• envelope, proof of service or electronic service record
• specialist psychiatric statement where requested or necessary for the assessment
• traffic psychological statement where required by the authority
• laboratory records showing date, method and clear identification of the person examined
• records of monitoring examinations and their submission to the authority
• chronology of orders, appointments, submissions and requests for completion

Keep originals unchanged. A personal chronology may supplement the file, but it does not replace the medical finding or the evidence specifically requested by the authority. Resolve inconsistent dates before describing the file as complete.