Pubdate: Tue, 15 Nov 2016
Source: Lethbridge Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2016 The Lethbridge Herald
Contact:  http://www.lethbridgeherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/239
Author: Bruce Cheadle
Page: B2
Referenced: Drugs and Road Safety: https://www.caa.ca/drugdriving/

HIGH BEHIND THE WHEEL

CANADA NEEDS POT-IMPAIRED DRIVER EDUCATION BEFORE LEGALIZING, SAYS CAA

The Canadian Automobile Association is lobbying for a
government-funded public education program to warn of the dangers of
cannabis-impaired driving before Canada legalizes recreational pot.

Police will also need more funding to learn how to recognize and
investigate drug-impaired drivers, says the CAA.

The Liberal government has promised to introduce legislation
legalizing recreational marijuana next spring and a committee report
on the process is expected at the end this month.

The CAA helped fund a study by the Ottawa-based Traffic Injury
Research Foundation that suggests legalization will pose "incredible
challenges" for managing pot-impaired drivers.

The study is sure to inflame the escalating propaganda war over
marijuana's harms and benefits, because it is premised on the
assumption that access to legal cannabis will increase traffic accidents.

The CAA commissioned a poll that found almost two thirds of
respondents are worried roads will become more dangerous after
legalization.

"There are a lot of misconceptions out there that marijuana doesn't
affect your driving, or even worse, it makes you a better driver,"
Jeff Walker of the Canadian Automobile Association said in a release.

"There need to be significant resources devoted to educating the
public in the run-up to, and after, marijuana is legalized."

A Conservative senator has introduced legislation that would give
police the power to obtain oral swabs or blood samples from drivers to
detect THC, the active intoxicant in cannabis.

But pot activist Jodie Emery says the presence of THC can be detected
up to a month after use and doesn't indicate impairment.

"Of course I'm against impaired driving, but impairment is proven by
performance," Emery said in an interview. "Police already have all the
tools they need to detect impaired drivers on the road."

The CAA-funded study notes there is a lack of good research data on
what it calls the "magnitude of the relationship between THC use and
collision risk."

The automobile association release refers to the Canadian Centre on
Substance Abuse, which in turn has cited a 2012 meta study of other
research that concluded "Acute cannabis consumption nearly doubles the
risk of a collision resulting in serious injury or death."

However, a 2015 study by the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration - which the U.S. government agency called "the most
precisely controlled study of its kind yet conducted" - found that
marijuana smokers had only a minimally higher risk of being involved
in a traffic accident than sober drivers. The 20-month-long survey of
more than 10,000 drivers in Virginia Beach, Va., found no "significant
increased risk of crash involvement" from cannabis use.

The largest population-based study, involving nine European Union
countries in 2010, also found the traffic accident risk from pot
impairment was "not statistically significant."

"Drivers positive for THC were estimated to be at elevated risk (1-3
times that of sober drivers)," said an NHTSA review of the research,
while the same study found alcohol-impaired drivers had elevated crash
risks of between 20 and 200 times that of sober drivers. That's not to
say the risk is zero. "Performance deficits (for drivers) have been
found in tracking, reaction time, visual function, concentration,
short-term memory, and divided attention," says the 2012 research
cited by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

But even though recreational marijuana is self-evidently an impairing
substance, many Canadian youth aren't getting the message.

The CAA-commissioned poll of 2,102 Canadians, conducted by Earnscliffe
Strategy Group, found that 26 per cent of respondents between the ages
of 18 and 34 "believe a driver is the same or better on the road under
the influence of marijuana."
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MAP posted-by: Matt