Pubdate: Tue, 20 Feb 2018 Source: Metro (Vancouver, CN BC) Copyright: 2018 Metro Canada Contact: http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3775 Author: David P. Ball Page: 3 DRIVING HIGH ON B.C. HIGHWAYS As legalization looms, experts say we're not road safe yet As Canada readies to legalize pot this summer, experts including an ex-traffic cop warn we're still stumped about stopping stoned drivers from hitting B.C.'S streets. "I've stopped lots of people who have been under the influence of marijuana," recalls retired West Vancouver traffic enforcement officer Cpl. Grant Gottgetreu. "You had to get really good at making observations. "Unless a person gets pulled over and there's an overwhelming smell of burned marijuana from the car there's still no instrument out there to test like there is for alcohol yet." Federal bill C-46 sets the maximum amount of pot's psychoactive chemical, THC, in drivers' blood at two nanograms per millilitre, but it's stalled in the Senate. But without an easy way to measure it, busting marijuana-addled motorists has vexed B.C.'S public safety minister Mike Farnworth. "It's one of the areas I've said where we have real concerns about when the equipment to test that's being used will be ready," he said Feb. 5, "and the training that's going to be required." But some Canadians' lax attitudes to being lit behind the gear shift has UBC Medicine clinical assistant professor Dr. John Staples worried. He compared 25 years of stats in the U.S. (where more people and public data offer a larger sample) between three dates; fatal traffic accidents spiked an average 12 per cent on April 20 after 4:20 p.m. - when "4/20" pot events begin - and under-21 drivers had a 38 per cent rise. "It's quite likely that lots of people celebrating it are also drinking alcohol and using other drugs," he noted. "Certainly there's some evidence to suggest that driving risks are magnified when cannabis and alcohol are combined." A 2012 study found that 7.4 per cent of randomly chosen B.C. drivers had a "potentially impairing substance" not booze in their saliva - 44 per cent of it THC. If passed, C-46 would allow police "to demand that the driver provide a sample of a bodily substance for analysis." Saliva testing is one idea, but the most surefire is a blood test. But it's fraught with civil liberties questions. "It's extremely intrusive," Gottgetreu noted. "And who would collect the blood?" THC also stays in the body for days - without any impairment. So a promising solution is an impairment test like one by B.C. medical device firm Opthalight. Its head-mounted tool observes how the eyes react to stimulus. Co-founder Ehsan Daneshi, a Simon Fraser University computational neuroscientist, said it could be used for DUI testing, but is financially risky. "Maybe we have a couple different companies with different technology, but probably only one will sign a contract with the government - and the other is out of the market," he said. "If government could actually make a new stream for funding these kinds of technologies that would help. "But without those technologies yet? Just legalizing marijuana I'm not sure is the best decision to make at this time." Staples agreed technology is crucial, but urged leaders to "think about other policies to prevent impaired driving from occurring in the first place," he said. "A substantial minority of Canadians believe intoxication with marijuana doesn't affect their driving. That's simply not true. Don't drive high." Gottgetreu isn't sure there'll be "pandemonium" on the road under legalization. But without a roadside test, enforcement requires "good old-fashioned police" sleuthing. "It's going to be a logistical nightmare for the courts," he predicted. "You have to convince the judge of the reliability of the evidence if (not) they're obviously not going to convict." - --- MAP posted-by: Matt