MADD Canada pushes for better roadside drug-use police tests
Police will need better tools to catch impaired drivers if Parliament is going to legalize marijuana, the country’s leading safe-driving group said Tuesday.
MADD Canada had a series of meetings with new members of Parliament to discuss what it calls the need to implement better roadside testing technology, before legislation to legalize is passed.
National president Angeliki Souranis told a news conference at the Radisson Hotel on Queen Street the organization would like to see the government implement “drug wipe” roadside saliva tests, similar to the breathalyzer tests that detect alcohol, because they are more effective.
“The current system does little to deter people from driving after drug use,” said Souranis. “Because the chance of being caught and charged is so low.”
Currently, if a person is stopped for suspected drug impairment, police conduct physical “field sobriety tests” and “drug recognition evaluations.” But MADD says the training is expensive, time consuming and yields few charges.
The group says drug-impaired driving needs to be on the radar of lawmakers.
In 2012, there were 614 road fatalities in Canada in which a driver had drugs present in their system, compared to 476 fatalities in which a driver had alcohol in their system.
However, by contrast, in 2014, only 2.6 per cent of all impaired driving charges were drug-related.
MADD CEO Andrew Murie showed the roadside oral fluid test that detects recent use of seven groups of illicit drugs, including cannabis, opiates and cocaine, through a quick swab of a driver’s tongue. He said the test offers instant results and can be used by all officers, opposed to the current system, in which only a fraction of the force has received the drug-recognition evaluation training.
“Oral fluid technology is used extensively in Australia and Europe. It was brought in a year ago in the U.K.,” said Murie “In one year of using oral fluid testing, the arrests for drug impaired drivers increased 800 per cent in the U.K. So it’s very effective technology.”
The test works much like a pregnancy test, in which one pink line shows a negative result, while a double pink line show a positive drug detection. The officer then inserts the test into a screen reader which reveals which drug was detected.
“A failure of this is a reasonable suspicion to demand an evidentiary test that will be a second oral fluid test that will be sent to a lab for analysis,” he said, adding
The current system does little to deter people from driving after drug use ... the chance of being caught and charged is so low.
the federal government needs to give police authorization to use test, establish limits and amend the Criminal Code of Canada by separating drug impairment from alcohol.
Murie said feedback from politicians was positive and expects the devices will likely be approved.
“Our understanding is that the RCMP, through the drugs and driving committee, is ready to recommend to the justice minister the approval of these devices ... and then at any time after that (police officers) can start to use them.”