High drivers need to keep off highways, for everyone’s sake
The news that one in seven Canadian cannabis users admits to driving while drugged could not have come at a worse time.
In two months, recreational cannabis becomes legal in Canada. While there are strong arguments that adults should be free to indulge in a substance that is less harmful than alcohol, legitimate fears about the end of prohibition remain.
No one wants to see stoned drivers recklessly weaving down a highway and endangering life and property.
But can the authorities effectively curtail this hazardous activity when recreational pot is legalized? A new Statistics Canada survey suggests they face an uphill struggle.
Far too many cannabis users already display a careless and irresponsible approach to drug consumption and driving — even before recreational cannabis is legal.
About one in seven cannabis users recently told Statistics Canada they had gotten behind the wheel of a vehicle within two hours of using marijuana at least once in the past three months.
That’s 14.3 per cent — more than triple the rate of people who have told other surveys that they drive soon after drinking alcohol. The most egregious offenders are men under the age of 24. And the more often people use cannabis, the more often they seem inclined to drive after doing so.
Andrew Murie, chief executive of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada, is right to label the cannabis survey results “alarming.” What’s also alarming is the fact that neither police nor a good number of cannabis users themselves seem fully prepared to deal with the threat of cannabis-impaired driving.
The psychoactive ingredient in cannabis is called THC and the federal government has already set legal limits for how much of it people can have in their blood while driving. The maximum penalty for a cannabis-impaired driver is 10 years in prison.
But here’s where the problems begin. While the federal government has announced plans to approve a device to test saliva samples, it has not said when these screening devices will be widely available to police.
As long as they lack such technology, police departments will have to depend on officers specially trained to recognize the symptoms of drivers who are high on cannabis. And such subjective tests will be imprecise.
Meanwhile, there are no clear guidelines for how many puffs of pot it takes to impair a driver. The strength of the product being used will have an impact on how impaired a user will become. How much is inhaled and how deeply it is taken into the lungs will also affect impairment.
At the very least, this means there will be a lot of confused people when recreational pot becomes legal, and not just because of the drug. The federal and provincial governments must do all they can to expedite the proper training of police and ensure they have the technical tools they need as soon as possible.
Cannabis users must fully accept their responsibility for keeping our roads safe. There are experts who say someone who uses cannabis should wait at least four hours before driving. Perhaps an even longer wait would be better.
What’s clear is that a major change is coming. At least some people will be tempted to use cannabis for the first time and at least some of them might want to drive soon afterwards.
It took decades of education and public relations campaigns to convince Canada’s population at large that drinking and driving is an inexcusable evil. If only a similarly profound shift in attitudes could arrive over the next two months.