ADHD drivers may have been wrongly charged with drug driving
Monday 21st September 2026 on 15:45 in
Denmark
Some drivers with ADHD may have been wrongly charged with drug driving because certain prescription medicines contain amphetamine, DR reports. The issue is outlined in a briefing sent by Justice Minister Nicolai Wammen to Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee.
In cases involving suspected drug driving, a blood sample is taken and tested for substances including amphetamine and their concentrations.
When amphetamine levels exceeded the de minimis threshold, forensic reports stated that the results were consistent with illegal use. However, some prescription medicines, including certain ADHD treatments, also contain amphetamine.
This created a risk that the use of medically prescribed amphetamine was not sufficiently examined during criminal proceedings. Elvanse is one ADHD medicine that contains amphetamine.
Forensic reports are important in drug-driving cases because they establish which drugs were detected in a driver’s blood and in what quantities.
Documents sent to the Legal Affairs Committee show that the Director of Public Prosecutions alerted the Ministry of Justice, police districts, state prosecutors and the Danish Court Administration to the issue in an email on 9 February this year.
A total of 392 concluded and ongoing criminal cases from 2019 to 2026 were identified and manually reviewed to determine, among other things, whether they contained information about amphetamine-based ADHD medication.
Following the review, state prosecutors asked police districts to investigate 10 cases further. In four cases, the medication taken did not contain amphetamine. In three cases, the conclusion was that either illegal amphetamine had been taken or ADHD medication had been used without a valid prescription.
One case is awaiting the outcome of a jury trial before a decision is made on whether to bring drug-driving charges under Section 54 of the Road Traffic Act.
The remaining two cases are ongoing. Investigators found that the defendants had taken prescription ADHD medication and that this had affected the forensic reports. The Director of Public Prosecutions has therefore asked state prosecutors to consider whether the charges should be dropped.