Pubdate: Wed, 03 Jan 2007 Source: Nor'wester, The (CN NF) Copyright: 2007, Transcontinental Media Contact: http://www.thenorwester.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4375 Author: Greg Knott, nor'wester Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Marijuana - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?224 (Marijuana and Driving) DRUG DRIVING Feds Introduce Legislation to Combat Drug Impaired Driving Impaired driving claims the lives of hundreds of people across the country every year. According to the Department of Justice, in 2003, alcohol and/or drugs were involved in 1,257 fatalities, 47,181 injuries and 161,299 property-damage crashes involving 245,174 vehicles across Canada. Incidents of drug impaired driving have also been on the rise. A survey of Ontario high school drivers in 2003 found close to 20 per cent had driven within one hour of using cannabis (marijuana) at least once in the previous year. The federal government proposed legislative reforms this fall to strengthen the laws against alcohol and drug-impaired drivers. These reforms will make it easier to investigate and prosecute impaired driving offences, including those involving drug-impaired drivers. Constable Peter MacIntyre of the RCMP in Deer Lake said since he completed a drug recognition course in February 2005 there have been six incidences of impaired driving under the influence of drugs on the west coast. The reforms introduced into the House of Commons in November seeks stiffer penalties and provides more tools for police for recognition of drugs including physical tests and bodily fluid samples for drug detection. The amendments to the law were supposed to go to its second reading in Parliament earlier this month but due to other matters were postponed. The House of Commons does not reopen until January, but Const. MacIntyre is hoping the law will be on the books by next summer. The drug influence evaluation which will be administered to suspects is a 12-step process to determine if a person is impaired, and if they are impaired, what category of drugs they're using at the time. The process consists of everything from, sobriety tests like walking a straight line, to measurements like blood pressure, heart rate, and including the pupil size and reaction to light, etc. "It's a fairly in-depth investigation which takes any where from 45 minutes to an hour," Cst. MacIntyre explained. Anyone suspected of driving while impaired can be tested for drugs or alcohol. "I've done tests already. We've seen everything from depressants, to stimulants, to narcotic analgesics like painkillers, cannabis. Whether it's prescription drugs or illegal drugs, we're seeing it all." Even if a person is found to be impaired while under the influence of a legal prescription drug they can still be charged with impaired driving. Laws related to impaired driving caused by drugs have been in effect in the US since the 1970's Const. MacIntyre along with a number of other RCMP officers from across the country did a course in Halifax in 2005, becoming drug recognition experts. They then traveled to the Phoenix, Arizona where they did testing on people being brought to jail under the influence of drugs. Drug impaired driving laws were developed in the United States in Los Angeles in the mid-1970's. Const. MacIntyre said currently there is a lot of misinformation about the legislation in the public and basically the new reforms are designed to take high-risk offenders off the road. While the incidents in this province are not as frequent as in other parts of the country or US, Cst. MacIntyre said, daily through the internet and other media, they are seeing incidents elsewhere of accidents and death caused by drug impaired drivers. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake