How marijuana legalization could impact how police nab impaired drivers

While the news inevitably led to some cannabis connoisseurs hot boxing their VW vans, it also raised concerns among road safety experts over what the plan is to catch drivers who hit the herb before hitting the road.

Thestar.com
May 24, 2016
By Michael Robinson

Last month, the Liberal government formally announced its plans to legalize and regulate marijuana by spring 2017.

While the news inevitably led to some cannabis connoisseurs hot boxing their VW vans, it also raised concerns among road safety experts over what the plan is to catch drivers who hit the herb before hitting the road.

For now, the government says its next step is to launch an expert task force that will provide advice for how the legalization process should take place. An advisory committee on drugs and driving is also studying roadside oral fluid drug screening kits.

“The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that those who drive while impaired by drugs, including marijuana, will be subject to stronger laws,” said Department of Justice spokesperson Andrew Gowing.

Dr. Robert Mann is examining the different ways cannabis affects volunteers’ driving skills as part of an ongoing clinical study at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. He told the Star his early analysis of the data suggests cannabis impacts a driver’s ability to process multiple tasks at once.

“We know that if you go into a laboratory and look at basic driving skills, there is evidence that the more you smoke, the more affected your performance is,” he said. “We see it affects the speed at which you travel while weaving on the road.”

Mann’s concerns were echoed by Doug Beirness, a senior researcher with the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, who warned that permitting pot will have consequences down the road.

“I think we really have to be cognizant of the fact that once (cannabis) becomes legal, we are likely to see an increase in the number of people who think its okay to drive after using it,” he said. This attitude, Beirness explained, stems from “young people who do not believe it impairs their ability to drive” and “do not believe police can do anything about it.”
“They are wrong on both counts.”

Changes made to the Criminal Code in 2008 gave police power to demand a roadside physical test from drivers they suspect are impaired by drugs. If a driver fails, an officer called a drug recognition expert completes an assessment. Pending the results, a bodily fluid sample - typically urine - can be ordered for analysis. While the motorist has the option of refusing this, doing so would result in a criminal charge.

Today, criminal penalties for a first offence of drug-impaired driving include a minimum fine of $1,000 and a one-year prohibition from driving anywhere in Canada.

“If we legalize it, we need the tools to enforce it,” said Kal Malhi, a retired RCMP officer.

Development is underway at his Vancouver-based company, Cannabix Technologies, to create a roadside breathalyzer that can scientifically confirm a police officer’s suspicion that a motorist is driving high. Malhi claims the breath-testing handheld device will be able to detect THC up to two hours after the drug was smoked or ingested.

Contrary to alcohol’s legal blood alcohol limit, scientists haven’t yet been able to pinpoint how much THC - the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana - causes impaired driving. To address the unknown, some U.S. jurisdictions have set their own level while others have enacted zero-tolerance policies.

In light of the lack of a Canadian legal benchmark, engineering professor Mina Hoorfar is attempting to prove just how much ganja is too much before hitting the gas at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

“There are people using medicinal marijuana and may be fine to drive so we want to find the threshold for impairment,” she said, adding that her research team’s $15 breathalyzer-esque device may hold the answer.

The size of two fingers together, Hoorfar’s tool doesn’t just detect the presence of marijuana but also measures how much of it has been consumed. It uses a sensitive gas sensor to process the “smellprint” of exhaled breath.

Meanwhile Beirness, who has researched impaired driving for over 30 years, is recommending groups of specially trained drug recognition experts be set-up within “every area of the country” to properly assess drivers on demand. Further, he believes a zero-tolerance policy be put in place for young drives.

“They have to understand from the very beginning that they cannot do this,” he said.