Pubdate: Tue, 01 Jun 2010 Source: Missoulian (MT) Copyright: 2010 Missoulian Contact: http://www.missoulian.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/720 Note: Only prints letters from within its print circulation area Author: John Emeigh HIGHWAY PATROL OFFICERS TRAINING TO SPOT DRUGGED DRIVERS BUTTE - With more and more people smoking medical marijuana, Montana law enforcement is focusing its training on detecting drugged drivers. While police are trained to determine if someone is under the influence of alcohol, the Montana Highway Patrol is putting emphasis on training officers to determine if people are driving while under the influence of prescription drugs or marijuana. Kurt Sager, a drug recognition expert for the Patrol, said some motorists are putting the public in danger by driving after ingesting prescription drugs or medical marijuana. He said it is illegal to drive under the influence of any drug, whether the drug is legally prescribed or not. "People think if it's a prescription or recommended by a doctor that it can't be bad (to drive on)," Sager said. But marijuana and some prescription drugs can impair a person's ability to drive and lead to crashes. Sager says that marijuana-related crashes have increased over the past three years in Montana. In 2007, there were 32 traffic fatalities involving cannabis, according to Sager. The number of fatal accidents involving marijuana increased by one in 2008, and last year there were 39 marijuana-related fatalities, according to Highway Patrol statistics. The Montana Crime Lab in Missoula received 1,480 blood samples in 2009 for DUI-related investigation, Sager reported. Of those samples, 231 tested positive for marijuana, which is about 15 percent of the samples. "We have to let people know that it's not socially acceptable to be driving under the influence of any drug or alcohol," Sager said. * Officers are trained to determine if a person is drunk by using the Standardized Field Sobriety Test, which involves having a motorist perform three exercises. They're also being trained to detect possible drug impairment - that test is called Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement. Under ARIDE, two additional exercises reveal possible narcotics impairment. Highway Patrol Capt. Gary Becker said the training will be a good tool for his troopers. Becker said they have probably encountered motorists that were under the influence of some type of drug, but didn't have the proper training to recognize it. "The better we are at detecting impairment, the safer everyone on the road is," Becker said. The field sobriety test requires a driver to walk a straight line and turn, balance on one leg and pass the horizontal gaze "nystagmus," which detects jerky movements of the eye. The ARIDE tests add an exercise that has the motorist stand with feet together, arms at the sides and leaning the head back with eyes closed. Sager said if the officer observes swaying, that could be a sign of drug influence. A second exercise has the subject follow the officer's finger in an attempt to make the subject go cross-eyed. Sager explained that some drugs make it impossible to go cross-eyed. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart