Pubdate: Sat, 28 Jun 2008
Source: Record, The (Kitchener, CN ON)
Copyright: 2008 The Record
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/942MrkRX
Website: http://www.therecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/225
Author: Melinda Dalton
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Marijuana - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?224 (Marijuana and Driving)

GETTING DOPE OFF THE ROAD

For Years, Catching Drivers High on Drugs Was a Difficult Task, but 
Starting This Week Police Have New Powers to Make a Case

If you think getting behind the wheel after smoking a joint is an 
unenforceable crime, think again.

Amendments to the Criminal Code coming into effect Wednesday give 
police new powers -- and new tests -- to catch drug-impaired drivers.

While laws against doping and driving have been on the books since 
the 1920s, police have had few options when faced with drivers who 
are impaired by something other than alcohol.

"You know something is up," said Staff Sgt. Scott Diefenbaker of the 
Waterloo Regional Police traffic branch. "You're not smelling any 
odour of alcohol. You may even have a couple roaches in the ashtray, 
or you get the smell of marijuana.

"But taking the matter to court and prosecuting a drug-impaired 
driver was a very difficult task."

Although a breathalyzer can detect alcohol, the tests for drugs are 
costly and time-consuming. And -- until next week -- voluntary.

The new law obliges drivers to take a standardized field sobriety 
test if police pull them over and suspect they are in any way 
impaired. If drivers fail the test, police can order them back to the 
station, where a specially trained drug recognition expert, known as 
a DRE, may be called in.

"It's a big step forward," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said in 
Toronto yesterday. "It's something that Mothers Against Drunk 
Driving, law enforcement agencies, and people who have been victims 
of impaired driving have been calling for quite some time."

The new law also imposes tougher penalties for all impaired drivers. 
Those caught driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol will 
face at least a $1,000 fine for a first offence, a minimum of 30 days 
in jail for a second offence and 120 days in jail if they are caught 
a third time.

The drug recognition expert program was developed by the Los Angles 
Police Department in the 1980s. It has been running in British 
Columbia on a voluntary basis since 1995.

The RCMP initially trained 24 officers as drug recognition experts. 
There are now more than 500 certified officers at police services 
across the country.

"It was anticipated as far back as 1995 that we would have some 
legislation eventually," said RCMP Cpl. Evan Graham, national 
co-ordinator of the drug-evaluation and classification-services 
program. Waterloo Regional Police have nine officers trained as drug 
recognition experts, the second highest number in the province after 
York Region, according to Diefenbaker.

The recognition program involves a 12-step evaluation of a driver, 
looking at such indicators as blood pressure, pupil size and the 
ability to multi-task -- walking a straight line while talking to an 
officer, for example.

"Driving is multi-tasking and you can't divide your attention when 
you are under the influence," said Const. Heather Wilson, one of the 
regional's drug recognition experts. Someone on cannabis, for 
example, can only do one thing really well, she said. "They might be 
able to drive within the lines really well, but they're not paying 
attention to that red light."

Officers are trained to check for several classes of drugs: 
depressants, including alcohol, barbiturates and benzodiazepines; 
inhalants, such as glue; cannabis; hallucinogens; narcotics; PCP, and 
stimulants, such as cocaine and methamphetamine.

Under the new law, refusing to participate becomes a criminal 
offence, as it is now for drunk-driving suspects who won't provide a 
breath sample.

"It really does level the playing field between alcohol and drugs 
when it comes to impaired driving," said Doug Beirness, manager of 
research and policy for the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

The aim of the new program is not to detect drug use, but to 
determine a user's level of impairment. People using prescription 
drugs correctly wouldn't have to worry.

The Centre on Substance Abuse has been studying the British Columbia 
program for several years. Comparing results with laboratory 
toxicological tests, the centre found that evaluators, on average, 
correctly determined the classification of drugs involved in 
impairment cases 90 per cent of the time.

"There have been claims that this is junk science and hocus-pocus 
going on, and in fact it's not," Beirness said.

There have been some legal challenges to evidence obtained by drug 
recognition experts. In an Alberta case, an appeals court judge ruled 
the evaluation was "not sufficiently reliable to meet the standard of 
relevance." Still, Beirness is confident the success rates he has 
observed among evaluators will be strong enough to back up future challenges.

To become certified, officers must go through at least two weeks of 
classroom training and several exams and quizzes. They must also 
participate in 12 in-field evaluations and make the right call at 
least 75 per cent of the time, said the Cpl. Evan Graham of the RCMP.

Beirness said he expects many of the people who will face 
impaired-by-drugs charges in the coming months won't be high on 
illegal drugs. "The kind of things that we're most concerned about 
are people who are taking prescription medications for other reasons, 
or using them inappropriately," he said. Anti-anxiety medications can 
have effects that are severely impairing when mixed with even a small 
amount of alcohol, he said.

Local police who have already received certification have been 
conducting voluntary evaluations for several weeks. They have not met 
with much resistance, Const. Heather Wilson said.

"That's because everybody thinks drugs do not cause impairment," she 
said. "They think they can smoke a joint and jump in the car and not 
realize that drug impairment can actually last longer than, say, one 
drink in your system."

In two of the evaluations Wilson performed, impairment was ruled out 
because of medical conditions. In the third, Wilson determined a 
teenager was impaired by cannabis. Several youth surveys, including 
one by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, indicate more teens 
admit to smoking pot and driving than to drinking and driving. Four 
years ago, 21 per cent of driving-age teens interviewed by the centre 
said they had got behind the wheel within two hours of smoking pot.

"Young people in particular have this idea that driving after using 
cannabis isn't as dangerous, or, 'I can't be caught, they can't do 
anything to me,' " Beirness said. 
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