Pubdate: Thu, 06 Mar 2014
Source: Smiths Falls Record News EMC, The (CN ON)
Contact:  2014 Metroland
Website: http://www.insideottawavalley.com/smithsfalls-on-news/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5495
Author: Desmond Devoy

DRUG-DRIVING CASES HARDER TO PROVE, JUST 'AS BIG AN ISSUE' AS DRUNK DRIVING

Proving someone is drunk behind the wheel is far easier to prove than 
if someone is high while driving.

"Impaired by alcohol is very easy to prove," said Cons. Dave Murphy 
of the Smiths Falls Police Service, during a talk at the Lanark 
County and Town of Smiths Falls municipal drug strategy committee 
networking day, Friday, Feb. 28, held in the Beckwith Township 
council chambers in Blacks Corners. Murphy is a "breath tech" 
officer, meaning he is trained to look for certain symptoms to 
identify if someone is drunk and impaired behind the wheel.

Other officers are trained to do the same for suspected drug abusers 
at the wheel.

"With drug impairment, it is a lot more difficult to prove," said 
Murphy. "It is up to the (officer) to do the test on the person. It 
is up to the officer to prove the impairment," since there is no 
breathalyzer for drug-driving.

Another factor in such arrests for alcohol is that someone "could 
blow 50," but still be impaired, while someone else might blow the 
legal limit of 80, and be completely inebriated. Yet another driver 
could blow over 80, not be impaired, and yet only be charged for 
blowing over 80.

"Our job is not black and white," said Murphy.

While Murphy and his fellow officers have to rely on their training 
and critical observation, Amy Peaire, assistant section head, 
toxicology section, Centre of Forensic Sciences (CFS), which is 
connected to the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and 
Correctional Services, has to rely on cold, hard, scientific facts to 
reach her conclusions.

Speaking via webcam from her Toronto office, she told the capacity 
crowd gathered in Beckwith about "Drug Impaired

Driving in Ontario: Toxicological Perspectives and THC Issues."

For Peaire, drug driving "may be as big an issue as alcohol-impaired driving."

A few years ago, the Ontario chief coroner's office asked her office 
to look at back cases from fatal motor vehicle collisions from Feb. 
1, 2011 to February 2012, to re-test for drugs and alcohol. Only 
alcohol had been tested before this time, though now all blood tests 
done involving a motor vehicle collision look at both alcohol and drugs.

In the 2011-12 examination, 28.40 per cent of drivers were

found to have drugs only in their system, while 15.30 per cent had 
alcohol and drugs in their system. About 12.20 per cent had alcohol 
only in their system, and nothing was detected in 44.10 per cent.

However, Peaire said that "I caution you with those numbers," because 
while drugs may have been detected in one person's system, it may 
very well be relatively harmless pharmacy-sold medication like blood 
pressure pills.

While her office does not keep track of "successful

prosecutions" since it needs to remain unbiased, based on the 250 to 
300 reports put out per year, about 25 per cent of those cases end up in court.

"It is a substantial amount that proceed to court," said Peaire.

In July 2008 new provincial laws were enacted permitting 
speciallytrained police officers to inspect drivers suspected of 
being high while driving. Usually, a blood or urine sample is then 
sent to CFS in Toronto, and after testing a report is written up, 
detailing what drugs were found in the suspect's system. Sometimes, 
Peaire and her coworkers are called on to testify in court as to 
their findings.

"This type of court case is now the second most frequent type of 
court case for Ontario toxicologists," said Peaire.

But a urine test can only do so much however.

"Urine is a waste product, so we cannot say for certain that the drug 
is still in the body," and causing impairment. "THC (the active 
ingredient in marijuana) is the most widely consumed illicit 
substance world wide," but it can remain in a person's system for 
weeks, even up to a month later for chronic users, long after the 
impairing high has worn off.

"It's hard to co-relate any THC levels with impairment," she said. 
"There is very little we can say to interpret blood and urine 
samples," since the laws regarding drug driving are not based on 
concentration levels in blood or urine, as they are with drunk driving laws.

Some drivers caught driving while under the influence of, say, 
marijuana, claim that they drive better after a drag on a joint. 
Peaire agreed that such "drivers decrease speed under the influence 
of THC but it does not compensate for impairment." Also with the 
"tracking deficit," she found that "it becomes more difficult to move 
your vehicle in a straight line," thanks to symptoms like memory 
loss, motor skill impairment, divided attention impairment, and 
increased response time, all necessary skills for driving.

"The risk of a motor vehicle collision increases two times (as much) 
after cannabis smoking," said Peaire. One of Canada's most famous, 
and infamous, Winter Olympians was Ross

Rebagliati, who won a gold medal for Canada in snowboarding at the 
1998 games in Nagano, Japan. He tested positive for THC, but it was 
not a banned substance at those games. Even so, in defending himself, 
he stated that while he had not smoked up himself, he had been in a 
room with others who were smoking, and got a contact high.

While there was some skepticism about the BC athlete's claim at the 
time, "scientifically, second-hand exposure to THC is a very real 
experience," said Peaire. "You can get levels of THC... in your urine 
from second hand exposure to marijuana."

One test carried out in The Netherlands - where marijuana is legal to 
purchase - had a group of people who had never smoked marijuana 
before sit in a crowded coffee house, where marijuana is sold in that 
country, for three hours, while others smoked around them.

"They could detect it (THC) in their urine, but the blood 
concentrations were very low," said Peaire. Just like people who 
drink coffee frequently, for whom the stimulating effects of caffeine 
are not as strong as they once were, "with chronic users (of 
marijuana), they report that they do not... get the same high 
feelings," as they did when they first started using. However, this 
still does not negate the negative effects of driving while high.

"Tolerance to some THC effects can occur," she said, but this 
tolerance does not extend to complex tasks.

A case study was carried out, looking at 640 cases in the province 
from July 2, 2008 to Dec. 31, 2010, pored over case histories, 
information provided by specially-trained drug detection police 
officers, and toxicology findings, which found some patterns for 
drugged drivers.

For the two full years looked at, there were 288 such drivers in 2009 
and 285 in 2010. Overall, 80 per cent of drivers were male, 20 per cent female.

While smoking marijuana while driving has made its way into popular 
culture as far back as Snoop Dogg's 1994 single 'Gin and Juice' with 
its chorus "Rollin' down the street/Smokin' indo," (a strain of 
marijuana) may minimize the effects of driving while high, 
soberingly, of the 640 cases, 20 per cent were brought to the 
attention of police because of motor vehicle collisions. About 10 per 
cent were from RIDE program stops, 38 per cent from traffic stops, 
and 28 per cent from possible impaired driving stops.

Of all of the cases where drugs were detected or suspected, the 
suspicions turned out to be true 97 per cent of the time.

The most drugs detected in a single case were 18, though Peaire has 
heard of another case where 25 different drugs were found in a person's system.

After the presentation, Josee Bessette, of the road user safety 
division, safety policy and education branch of the Ontario Ministry 
of Transportation, told the assembled that the fine for distracted 
driving was going up from $155 to $280 on March 18.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom