Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jan 2018
Source: Intelligencer, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2018, The Belleville Intelligencer
Contact: http://www.intelligencer.ca/letters
Website: http://www.intelligencer.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2332
Author: Tim Milleer
Page: A3

HIGH DRIVERS CONCERN COPS

Local police preparing for legalization of marijuana and detecting
impaired motorists

With the legalization of recreational marijuana looming on the
horizon, local law enforcement aren't letting the grass grow under
their feet.

One of the largest concerns for city police is a potential increase in
the amount of impaired motorists on the road.

"If a lot more people are using it, or openly using it, we're going to
have those issues of how do we deal with the people that are putting
other people at risk by driving under the influence of marijuana?"
said Belleville Police Staff Sgt. Rene Aubertin.

"As far as it goes for the other stuff, the possession laws are just
going to change. Until that does, as of today we treat everything the
same as we always have because that's what the law is today. And when
the laws change, we'll address it accordingly."

While distracted driving has outpaced drunk driving as a cause of
vehicle collisions in the past few years, the addition of a new legal
intoxicant means police need to be prepared by the July 1 legalization
date.

"There's a lot of training that's going to be coming for street cops
in Ontario about the changes and about how we're going to go about the
enforcing of impaired driving in Ontario," said Const. Brad Stitt,
Belleville's senior traffic officer.

"Anytime legislation changes it takes a little bit of time to get
people comfortable with the changes. I think we're like every other
police service in the province," he continued. "There are drastic
changes coming to the legislation and we're introducing an entirely
new substance which on the 30th of June is illegal and on the first of
July is going to be legal. "For many of us, we've spent our entire
career with that substance being illegal and there's going to be an
adjustment when recreational cannabis becomes legal."

In preparation, the provincial government is changing provincial
sanctions to make being impaired by marijuana mirror being impaired by
the consumption of alcohol. As well, it will be an offence for a
novice driver, a young driver, or anyone operating a commercial motor
vehicle to have any presence of drugs in their system.

When it comes to testing to see whether a driver is impaired from the
use of marijuana, Stitt said it's not as cut and dried as the current
testing for alcohol.

A roadside screening device for alcohol gives officers a number
indicating the amount of alcohol in that person's system and whether
it's lawful, ' warn' or at fail levels.

"That's not what we're going to see with the oral fluid screening
device. It's simply going to show presence or not presence of these
intoxicating drugs," said Stitt.

The tests would conceivably use an oral fluid screening device capable
of analyzing a swab from the inside of a person's mouth for a number
of different street drugs.

If, after legalization passes, marijuana is detected in a driver's
system officers would then need to rely on a standardized field
sobriety test to determine if they are actually impaired or not.

"It is one of the tools that police officers have been using and will
be using more and more in the world of recreational marijuana to
detect those people who are under the influence of cannabis," said
Stitt.

"Once an officer has formed grounds, then there's going to be a couple
of different avenues available to the officer about utilizing a drug
recognition expert officer or making a blood demand based upon that."

Training courses are being conducted throughout the province leading
up to the July 1 anticipated legalization date. Training is expected
to continue through the summer and into the fall to get as many
officers trained as possible to conduct standardized field sobriety
tests.

Stitt said they're doing everything they can do make Belleville the
safest community in Ontario and are working diligently with the
Ontario Police College and other partners to bring officers up to
speed on the changes.

"We will be ready on July 1 for the changes and we look forward to
working in 2018 to make our roads safe."
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MAP posted-by: Matt