Pubdate: Thu, 23 Dec 2004
Source: Era-Banner, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2004 The Era-Banner
Contact:  http://www.yorkregion.com/yr/newscentre/erabanner/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2678
Author: Martin Derbyshire
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?224 (Cannabis and Driving)

MOM WANTS APOLOGY TO CLEAR DAUGHTER'S NAME

The mother of a Stouffville teenager killed in an August car accident is 
demanding police retract their claim her daughter was impaired.

"There is no scientific data saying she was impaired," said Karen 
Montgomery, whose 17-year-old daughter, Janette, was killed when she lost 
control of her car and hit a traffic pole in East Gwillimbury the morning 
of Aug. 29. "I've asked for a retraction and I want an apology. I want her 
name cleared."

Janette was giving a friend a ride home shortly after 9 a.m. when she 
changed lanes to pass another car.

It was raining heavily and she lost control, crossed in front of the other 
car and hit its front bumper. Her Cadillac Eldorado, a gift from her 
grandfather just weeks earlier, left the road and hit a pole.

The Cardinal Carter Catholic High School student was taken to hospital, 
where she died.

Her 19-year-old passenger suffered non-life-threatening injuries and the 
driver of the other car was not hurt.

Three months later, York Regional Police issued a news release stating a 
toxicology report from the Centre of Forensic Science indicated Janette had 
drugs and alcohol in her system and was impaired.

However, toxicology reports do not indicate impairment, only a level of 
drugs or alcohol present in a test sample of a subject's blood, urine or 
saliva.

A copy of Janette's toxicology report obtained by the York Region Newspaper 
Group indicates she had a level of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, 
consistent with having exposure to the drug within about two hours of the 
crash.

Unlike alcohol, there is no THC blood level that constitutes a charge under 
the Criminal Code.

There is also no data to support what level of THC would indicate impairment.

The report also indicted an unknown level of a benzoylecgonine, a 
metabolite of cocaine found in the body after ingestion of the drug. It 
suggests Janette used cocaine, but does not pinpoint when or how much.

Her toxicology screening also showed trace, or amounts below a level that 
can be quantified, of ethanol in her blood.

The ethanol could have come from drinking alcohol or something as benign as 
mouthwash.

Nowhere does the toxicology report say Janette was impaired.

York Regional Police Staff-Sgt. Thomas Carrique admits the news release 
should never have indicated it did.

"It should have said, based on the toxicology report, all the other 
evidence and the analysis of a drug recognition expert, who also happens to 
be a qualified breath alcohol technician and a collision investigator, she 
was impaired, in our opinion," he said.

Two York Region officers were recently certified as drug recognition 
experts. However, the drug recognition expert (DRE) program, first 
instituted by Los Angeles Police in the late 1970s, is designed to 
determine impairment using a series of psychological and physical tests on 
live subjects, not by looking at the toxicology reports of the deceased.

"That's where the confusion may be," Staff-Sgt. Carrique said. "He did not 
perform a DRE examination, but he used his expertise as a drug recognition 
expert, an extremely qualified breath alcohol technician and a very 
experienced collision investigator to form the opinion she was impaired at 
the time of the crash."

That's not good enough for Janette's mother, who says her family and 
friends were upset to read newspaper stories claiming she was impaired 
without the scientific proof to back it up.

"The toxicology report didn't say she was impaired. There is no way they 
can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was. They've tried, convicted 
and sentenced her without all the facts," she said. "This has been 
devastating to my family. The police have made her look like a criminal, 
like a bad person. She was just a normal teenager and her rights have been 
trampled on."

Police issue news releases to educate young drivers about the danger of 
impaired driving, not to drag the names of the deceased through the mud, 
Staff-Sgt. Carrique said.

"We're trying to make our roads safer and maybe save a life in the process 
of doing so," he said.

The police have no plans to issue a correction or retraction of the 
release, Staff-Sgt. Carrique said.

Ms Montgomery said she may consider a civil suit.

"The police should stop and think how their policies effect people. No 
other mom, dad and grandparents need to go through this," she said. "We've 
been put through the mill. There's no evidence she even smoked marijuana, 
she may have just been in the room where someone was smoking. Maybe she did 
smoke it. Either way, the police have said she is guilty of driving 
impaired when there's no scientific evidence to that fact."
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