Pubdate: Sun, 17 Jul 2016
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Page: 3
Copyright: 2016 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.ottawasun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.ottawasun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Author: Paula McCooey
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?224 (Cannabis and Driving)

DRIVING HIGH

As pot dispensaries become more prevalent in Ottawa, there is growing 
concern about people driving while high.

In May, Canada's leading drive-safe group held a series of meetings 
with new MPs to discuss what it calls the need to implement better 
roadside testing technology, before legislation to legalize marijuana 
is passed.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving appealed to the government to do away 
with current drug-recognition evaluations, and implement "drug wipe" 
roadside saliva tests, similar to the Breathalyzer tests, to tell on 
the spot whether a person is impaired by drugs.

But while MADD believes the current system is time-consuming and 
yields few charges, the system must be followed, says Sgt. John Kiss 
of the Ottawa police's impaired driving countermeasures department.

He helps to shed some light on what police believe will be a growing 
problem, and what drivers should expect if an officer pulls them over:

Q. How would driving while high affect a person's driving?

A. Whether it's alcohol, cannabis or cocaine, the central nervous 
system will be affected. Everything from your reaction time, your 
depth perception, peripheral vision, all these things are all 
affected . you shouldn't be driving because you don't have your 
faculties, and driving is something that requires the combination of 
all of these faculties together and requires your undivided attention.

Q. If a driver is suspected of being stoned, what is the charge? And 
when did that charge first come into effect?

A. It has always been a crime to drive while impaired, whether 
because of alcohol or drugs. However, in 2008 the Criminal Code of 
Canada was amended to give officers the authority to demand that 
motorists suspected of being high submit to standardized physical 
tests required to determine drug impairment specifically.

Before (2008) we couldn't demand that, we could only make 
observations and then report those to the courts. And then it would 
be up to the courts to employ a crystal ball, so to speak, to 
determine whether the person was actually impaired by drugs or not.

Q. What do these tests involve?

A. The drug identification expert checks pupils, pupils' reaction to 
light, skin condition, how muscles react, blood pressure, pulse - all 
these things are measured and they form a matrix they can go through 
and plug in all these physical symptoms to determine the one or 
combination of the seven classes of drugs.

The officer will then require a driver to submit a urine test at the 
station. Lab results will not be able to determine the amount of the 
drug in the system, just validate whether drugs were present.

Q. What if the driver doesn't want to submit a urine sample?

A. The criminal code states the driver would be charged under section 
254 (5) for refusal or failure to comply with the officer's demand to 
provide a breath, blood or urine sample. The penalty ranges from 
$1,000 to $5,000, and 30 days to 18 months in jail.

If they absolutely refuse to accompany the officer then they would 
still be taken to the station to be released on various conditions by 
the officer in charge of the cellblock. They would face criminal 
charges of impaired driving and failing or refusing to submit to the 
DRE examination. The (charges) are equally serious and they can be 
convicted of both.

Q. Alcohol can be measured but how are drugs measured?

A. Drug impairment is gauged through the officer's testing, and the 
driver simply has to appear impaired. But there's no benchmark.

You can have an illicit drug or a prescription drug or alcohol in 
your system, that doesn't mean you can't drive a motor vehicle. It's 
just that you can't drive if impaired.

Q. Does driving while high on medicinal marijuana absolve people from charges?

A. We don't differentiate. Just because you've got a medicinal 
marijuana card, it doesn't mean you can drive around stoned. We don't 
care whether they have a card or not - they are dealt with just like 
any other impaired driver.

It's like having an oxycodone prescription, that doesn't mean you can 
take six of them and drive around stoned. So they've got to manage it 
and hopefully the medical professional who prescribed the marijuana 
warned them that they can't drive and use this, any more than they 
can after using some other prescription drug. So we don't 
differentiate at all. It's not a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Q. Do you believe incidents of drugged driving will increase with new 
marijuana laws?

A. If you look at places like Colorado and Washington state, where 
they've legalized it as far back as 2012, they are now dealing with 
the social costs of that. The impaired driving and the fatalities 
have increased. The advice we are hearing from them is that we should 
not be legalizing any of this unless we have the proper legislative 
and enforcement framework in place because once it's legalized, it's 
too late to be playing catch-up. And I think the government is 
understanding that.

Q. Could the increase in incidents just be a phase in the beginning? 
Perhaps once people understand the social ramifications, incidents 
will decline.

A. No ... it's been said many times before, drugs, specifically 
cannabis, is at the same place we were 50 years ago with alcohol. The 
social norms have not been established yet and people just don't 
realize how dangerous it is - and how super dangerous it is when you 
mix drugs with alcohol and then drive.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom