An independent politician who has ‘smoked for quite a long time’ has pleaded guilty to drug driving after failing a roadside test on a fishing trip.
Craig Garland was elected to Tasmania’s parliament in March 2024 and has held a crucial balance-of-power position on the crossbench.
He is campaigning for re-election at the July 19 snap election, which was triggered after a no-confidence motion was passed against the state’s minority Liberal premier.
The 60-year-old appeared in Burnie Magistrates Court on Thursday charged with driving a motor vehicle while a proscribed illicit drug was present in his oral fluid in November last year.
Garland pleaded guilty and will next face court for sentencing on September 15.
He previously told AAP he returned a positive result from a tongue-scrape test on his way to go fishing after smoking cannabis the night prior.
He said he used cannabis on-and-off for pain relief, particularly for the ongoing effects of a broken leg, but did not have a medical prescription.
‘I’ve smoked for quite a long time. I didn’t leave it long enough before I drove but I didn’t think it would be a problem,’ he said in November.
Craig Garland was elected to Tasmania’s parliament in March 2024 and has held a crucial balance-of-power position on the crossbench.
‘I’m not driving around whacked up or pissed (drunk). I guess you put it down to bad timing and bad management.’
Garland said he was not under any effect of the drug at the time of the test.
‘I don’t consider it impairing at all. It might be if you sit there and have 40 cones and whack a few beers in, but not if you’re having a little one … every now and then.’
He previously said the charge was unlikely to be a big issue for his supporters.
Garland, a former commercial fisherman, has found a way into parliament on a shoe-string campaigning budget.
His key policies have been opposition to commercial salmon farming off Tasmania’s northwest coast, and protection of native forests from logging.
Garland, who supported the no-confidence motion against the premier, could again hold a powerful crossbench position after the July 19 election.
Opinion polling suggests the Liberals and Labor face an uphill battle to win enough seats to form majority government.
