LEGAL POT COULD LEAD TO SPIKE IN IMPAIRED DRIVING
Before proceeding with its pot-legalization agenda next spring, the Liberal government is promising to tackle the issue of drug-impaired driving, which bureaucrats say could spike considerably if marijuana becomes legal.
Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was warned by officials in January of the risks, a classified briefing document obtained by The Canadian Press shows.
“The legalization of marijuana could lead to a significant increase in drugimpaired driving cases,” the memorandum reads.
Bureaucrats say there is limited data as only two jurisdictions in the United States have legalized marijuana: Colorado and Washington.
“For example, in Colorado, in the year following marijuana legalization, there was a 32-per-cent increase in marijuana-related traffic deaths,” the memo reads.
Liberal MP Bill Blair, a former Toronto police chief and now parliamentary secretary to Wilson-Raybould, says the issue is already a serious problem in Canada and that legalization could lead to more cases.
“That’s why it’s so important to do the work upfront to educate Canadians and to provide law enforcement and the justice system with the tools they need to control that illegal behaviour on our roadways,” said the Toronto MP, who is the Liberals’ point man on marijuana legalization. “We recognize its urgency.”
The Liberal government has promised to table a bill on legislating cannabis in the spring of 2017 — a timetable deemed far too ambitious by the Opposition, which would rather see the government slow down the process rather than expose Canadians to risks.
Conservative public safety critic Alain Rayes said the danger is real and accused the Liberals of venturing “too far, too fast.”
New Democrat Alexandre Boulerice said if the road safety issue is not addressed specifically, it would be a “major obstacle” to his party’s support of any future bill.
Some groups, like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), have called for Criminal Code amendments. Marie-Claude Morin of MADD said the organization wants cannabis to be subject to the same laws that currently apply to driving under the influence of alcohol, but to have the two impaireddriving offences appear distinct in the code.
That could result in the addition to the Criminal Code of a legal limit of active tetrahydrocannabinol in the body.
In Washington and Colorado, the legal limit is five nanograms of THC per millilitre of blood. In Nevada and Ohio, the legal limit is two nanograms per millilitre. Other states have opted for zero tolerance.
“There will be the discussion about what’s safe,” Blair said. “And that discussion will range from a total prohibition — so no use of drugs in driving — to determining a safe level.”