Derbyshire cannabis smoker “surprised” half a joint put her over drug drive limit

Tina Wray, 59, was seen in her VW Golf driving “erratically for about five minutes” in Stoney Middleton, Chesterfield Magistrates Court heard.

Prosecutor Angela Hadfield said police claimed Wray’s car crossed the central white lines and when officers pulled her up she was “unsteady on her feet and smelled of cannabis”.

After finding some dope in Wray’s car she was drug tested and found to be just over the legal limit for the drug on August 16.

Wray, who had no legal representation, denied crossing the central line in the road, saying: “There were no white lines on the road I was pulled up on anyway.”

The defendant told District Judge Andrew Davison that while driving home from a family visit where she had received bad news and upset, she parked in Chatsworth.

She said: “I was upset and stopped for a while and wrongly I had a bit of a smoke - but I only smoked half of what I made. I was surprised that half a joint put me over the limit.”

Wray added that she needed the use of a car to attend hospital for dialysis treatment.

However, banning Wray from driving for 12 months, the judge said: “I accept that it was a small amount.

“But drug driving is so serious and has such an impact on road safety that a judge must impose disqualification.”

Wray, of Meadow Close, Stoney Middleton, was also fined £120.

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