This is quite shocking, according to the Irish Independent, Dr Mark Murphy, who is the chair of communications for the Irish College of General Practitioners, has said that he has major concerns over the new roadside drug tests.
Although the ICGP supports such tests if they prevented road deaths, he claims that women who are taking tablets to help with period pain could very well fail the tests because of the tablet content.
The main problem is benzodiazepines which are two separate groups of drugs and which will cause people to fail a standard roadside drug test.
Drugs such as Sopadeine, Feminax and Nurofen Plus all contain Codeine which is part of the opiate group and again could see someone fail a roadside drug test.
The difficulty it appears, is for the garda in question to ascertain whether someone is impaired to drive or whether they’re merely taking prescribed medication and/or over the counter medication.
The new road side drug tests are said to be aimed at people who take cannabis and other drugs such as cocaine and even heroin.