Since 2024 there is no fine option for drug driving in Romania. Since 2025 the High Court has held that the mere presence of a substance in your blood is not enough to convict. The two developments pull in opposite directions, and the practical result is worth stating honestly.
What the law says
Art. 336 (2) of the Romanian Criminal Code penalises driving a vehicle while under the influence of psychoactive substances. Following Law no. 172/2024, in force from 3 June 2024, the penalty is imprisonment from 1 to 5 years and a ban on exercising certain rights. The conjunction matters: the complementary penalty is mandatory, and the alternative of a fine, which previously existed, has been removed.
Paragraph (3) raises the penalty to 2 to 7 years where the driver was carrying out public passenger transport, transporting dangerous substances, or acting in practical driving instruction or examination.
Unlike alcohol, where 0.80 g/l separates an administrative offence from a crime, the law sets no threshold value at all for psychoactive substances. That silence produced years of inconsistent case law.
The decision that changed the debate: HCCJ no. 25/2025
By Decision no. 25/2025, delivered on 27 January 2025 and published in Official Gazette no. 70 of 28 January 2025, the High Court of Cassation and Justice answered the question on which most of these cases turn.
It held, with binding effect, that for the essential condition attached to the material element, namely that the defendant was under the influence of psychoactive substances, it is necessary to establish both the presence of the substance in the biological samples and its capability to impair the driver's ability to drive.
The presumption is therefore rebuttable, not absolute. A positive result opens the case; it does not close it. The prosecution must also show that the concentration was capable of impairing driving ability, and the defence may challenge this with scientific evidence.
How impairment capability is established
Through a forensic medical expert report, which examines blood and urine concentrations, the clinical examination performed at sampling, the interval between the roadside stop and the sample, and the ratio between the active substance and its metabolites.
Three points recur in these reports:
- The relationship between concentration and driving impairment is not linear and is influenced by tolerance, chronic versus occasional use and individual variability. This differs sharply from alcohol, where the correlation is much tighter.
- The clinical examination at sampling is indicative only and is not pathognomonic for drug use.
- The ratio between active substance and inactive metabolites allows an estimate of when consumption occurred, which may confirm or contradict the driver's account.
Indicative figures from the scientific literature
The figures below are drawn from the literature routinely cited in Romanian forensic reports, including data published by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. They are statistical reference points, not individual certainties.
Cannabis
- After smoking two cigarettes containing roughly 10 mg THC each, THC is detectable in plasma for approximately 3.5 to 5.5 hours.
- The plasma half-life of THC is 1 to 3 days in occasional users and 5 to 13 days in frequent users.
- The urinary excretion half-life of THC-COOH, the inactive metabolite, is reported between 30 and 60 hours.
- The first signs of altered driving ability have been detected at blood THC concentrations above 2 ng/ml, corresponding to 3.8 ng/ml in plasma.
- Saliva detection arises from deposits formed locally in the oral mucosa, which release THC for hours after use stops. A roadside test can therefore turn positive when the person is no longer affected.
Cocaine
- Half-life is estimated at about 0.8 hours for cocaine, 4.6 hours for benzoylecgonine and 3.1 hours for ecgonine methyl ester.
- Cocaine is detectable in blood for roughly 1 to 6 hours, while benzoylecgonine may be detected for up to 48 or 72 hours, longer in chronic users.
- Urinary benzoylecgonine below 500 ng/ml suggests occasional use; above 2,000 ng/ml suggests chronic use.
- The literature places impairment from blood concentrations above 5 ng/ml cocaine, or above 100 ng/ml benzoylecgonine.
- In the presence of alcohol, cocaine converts to cocaethylene, a biomarker of combined use.
Read these figures in the right direction. They do not tell you when it is safe to drive. They tell you the opposite: metabolites persist long after any effect has gone, and a roadside test can turn positive days after use. Anyone calculating from these intervals ends up in a criminal file. The only safe position is not to drive after use at all.
The roadside test is not evidence
The roadside device is an orientation test on saliva. It triggers transport to a forensic institute for blood and urine sampling, but it establishes neither presence, nor concentration, nor effect. The evidence in the file is the toxicology report, interpreted through expert evidence.
Refusing sampling solves nothing. Art. 337 of the Criminal Code punishes refusal or evasion of biological sampling with imprisonment from 1 to 5 years, the same range, and you lose every technical challenge you might have raised against the result.
What you realistically face
Law no. 172/2024, published on 31 May 2024 and in force from 3 June 2024, changed two things at once. It removed the criminal fine from art. 336, and it inserted art. 83 (21) into the Criminal Code, under which deferral of penalty cannot be ordered for the offences in art. 335 and art. 336.
For offences committed from that date, four options remain:
- Suspended sentence under supervision, art. 91, where the penalty is at most 3 years. This is the usual outcome in a first case.
- Immediate imprisonment, on recidivism, concurrent offences, or the aggravating circumstances in paragraph (3). It becomes mandatory where the conduct also caused negligent homicide under art. 192 (2) or (3), by virtue of art. 91 (31).
- Waiver of penalty, art. 80, the only route that avoids a conviction. Still legally available, but it requires reduced gravity and a clean record, so it is rare.
- Waiver of prosecution, art. 318 of the Criminal Procedure Code, a decision for the prosecutor. Also exceptional.
For conduct before 3 June 2024, the more favourable criminal law applies under art. 5 of the Criminal Code, and both the fine and deferral of penalty remain available. In an older file still before the courts, the date of the offence is the first thing to check.
Your licence
Under art. 111 of Ordinance no. 195/2002 the licence is retained and the replacement document is issued without the right to drive. More importantly, art. 103 (1) (c) imposes a 180 day suspension even where the case is closed, where there is an acquittal under art. 16 (1) (b) second sentence of the Criminal Procedure Code, or where prosecution, penalty or its application is waived or deferred.
Even the best possible criminal outcome leaves you without a licence for six months. The administrative consequence runs separately from the criminal one.
What gets checked
- The interval between the roadside stop and sampling, as recorded in the report.
- Chain of custody: kit sealing, serial number, transport, time of analysis.
- Consistency between serum concentrations and whole blood figures, where conversion errors are common.
- The clinical examination at sampling, frequently entirely negative, which supports the defence on impairment capability.
- Whether a forensic expert report was obtained and whether the defendant was able to participate in it.
- Whether the road qualifies as public.
For the full picture on Romanian traffic offences, see the page on traffic offences.
Informational article, updated 28 July 2026. It is not legal advice and does not describe any individual case. The metabolism figures are reference points from the scientific literature, subject to wide individual variation, and do not indicate an interval in which driving would be permitted.
In short.
You can be prosecuted, because metabolites persist long after the effect has gone. However, under HCCJ Decision no. 25/2025, conviction requires proof that the substance was capable of impairing driving ability, not merely that it was present. Old use, low residual concentrations and a negative clinical examination is precisely the scenario where the defence has real arguments.
No. Romanian law sets no threshold value for psychoactive substances. There are only reference points from the scientific literature used by forensic experts, such as above 2 ng/ml THC or above 5 ng/ml cocaine in blood, but these are interpretive tools, not statutory limits.
Enough to open an investigation, not to convict. The roadside device is a saliva orientation test. The evidence is the blood and urine toxicology report, and its meaning is established through a forensic expert report.
Not for offences committed from 3 June 2024. Law no. 172/2024 removed the fine, and art. 336 (2) now provides only imprisonment from 1 to 5 years and a ban on exercising certain rights. For earlier conduct the fine remains available as the more favourable criminal law.
A suspended sentence under supervision. For offences committed from 3 June 2024, when Law no. 172/2024 entered into force, neither a criminal fine nor a deferral of penalty is available any longer. Waiver of penalty remains the only route that avoids a conviction, but it is rare. For earlier conduct the more favourable criminal law applies under art. 5 of the Criminal Code. Waiver of penalty is the only route that avoids a conviction, but it is rare and depends on reduced gravity and a clean record. Waiver of prosecution is possible, likewise as an exception.
Yes. Romanian criminal law applies to conduct on Romanian public roads regardless of nationality or where the licence was issued. Proceedings are conducted in Romanian with an interpreter, and a conviction is exchanged with other EU member states through ECRIS.