Police not ready for THC blood testing

OTTAWA • Canadian police are not yet ready to use a key blood-testing provision of the Liberals’ new drug-impaired driving law, government officials said Friday.

With cannabis legalization less than two weeks away, police are highly likely to continue to depend on urine testing for the foreseeable future, officials said, despite the fact the government created a legal shortcut for laying impaired driving charges based on blood samples.

Without blood samples, police cannot lay three new charges for drivers impaired by cannabis created under Bill C-46. The charges are based on the level of THC — the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana — found in the blood. Instead, police will continue to rely on older drug-impaired driving charges based partly on urine samples in the majority of cases, officials said.

The new “per se” limits for THC are controversial, because there’s not a clear link between the level of THC in the blood and the degree of impairment, as there is with alcohol. However, the per se limits make it easier to prosecute impaired driving, because police don’t need to further prove impairment; a driver is simply assumed to be impaired once the THC blood level is above a certain limit.

However, during a briefing in Ottawa on Friday, government officials said many police forces, including the RCMP, aren’t set up to take blood samples, which must be collected within two hours of a driver being pulled over. The samples must be collected by nurses or phlebotomists, which most police agencies don’t have on staff. Officials suggested that if an impaired driver ends up in hospital after a car accident, for example, the sample could be taken there.

According to the new law, a driver with a blood THC level of two to five nanograms can receive a summary conviction. Those with levels above five nanograms could face fines and jail time.

Under the pre-existing drug-impaired driving rules, if police suspected a driver had consumed drugs they could conduct a standard field sobriety test, which can include walking in a straight line or standing on one leg. If they had a reasonable suspicion that a driver was impaired, they could require the driver to undergo a drug recognition evaluation, a 12-step process that includes a urine sample, which would form the basis for laying charges that could lead to fines or jail time.

Bill C-46 was intended to make detecting drugimpaired driving easier by allowing police to demand a roadside saliva sample, which they can then use to require a drug recognition evaluation or a blood sample.

However, the National Post reported last month that police forces across the country are holding off on ordering newly approved roadside saliva-testing devices, with some voicing concerns about their cost and ability to withstand winters.

THERE’S NOT A CLEAR LINK BETWEEN THE LEVELOFTHC IN THE BLOOD AND THE DEGREE OF IMPAIRMENT.