Police forces beef up officer training, roadside screening for pot
Law enforcement agencies are welcoming a delay in the implementation of the country’s new cannabis rules, saying they’re ramping up officer training, working on public education initiatives and hoping to beef up roadside screening efforts by the fall.
This week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Canadians would be able to start legally purchasing and consuming recreational pot on Oct. 17, a month later than previously indicated.
Various police forces say they’ll be using the next few months figuring out how to best navigate the new legal landscape.
“The extra time allows us just a bit of breathing room to get all our members, both sworn and civilian, trained on how the new legislation is going to impact us,” said Calgary Police Insp. Kevin Forsen, who chairs a committee co-ordinating the force’s training and response to cannabis and other opiates. “It’s not just about enforcement for us. It’s a lot of community engagement and education and working with everybody to make sure the transition ... works for everybody.”
Education appears to be a major focus for a number of forces. The federal pot law, while laying out basic guidelines, largely left provinces in control of how cannabis should be distributed. The result is a patchwork system with different provinces each championing different approaches.
Some bodies, however, are working on developing standards that can guide law enforcement officials from coast to coast.
RCMP Sgt. Harold Fleiderer said a key focus for the Mounties is to develop an online training package meant to bring Canada’s police up to speed on the new regulations. The program, dubbed “Introduction to Cannabis Legislation,” is being developed with help from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and the Canadian Police Knowledge Network, he said.
The network will disseminate the program to forces across the country in the coming months. Once available, Fleiderer said the program will help police identify cannabis in its various forms, understand what constitutes legal quantities, recognize and act upon criminal offences under the new laws, and understand how the new cannabis rules will impact Indigenous communities.
“The design and implementation of the new training materials will align with ongoing efforts to build provincial-territorial capacity and resources to enforce the new cannabis and drug-impaired driving offences,” Fleiderer said. “This will result in a consistent approach to the application of the new legislation across the country.”
Education efforts are also a top priority for the Ontario Provincial Police, according to spokeswoman Staff Sgt. Carolle Dionne. One key area of focus, she said, is the issue of field sobriety testing.
Last fall the federal health minister announced that a pilot project was underway to determine which technology would be most effective for conducting roadside tests for impaired driving.
Since then, however, the federal government has not yet made any recommendations, leaving police forces to draw upon or expand existing resources.