Driving while impaired by cannabis leads to jail time
Driving while impaired by cannabis four times over the legal limit has resulted in jail time for a P.E.I. man.
Zachary Harvey Gordon, 21, appeared in provincial court in Charlottetown on Oct. 31 and pleaded guilty to the impaired driving charge.
Crown attorney Lisa Goulden told the court that on Feb. 10 at around 5 p.m., the RCMP was on patrol in Stratford and pulled over a speeding motor vehicle. The driver – Gordon – presented officers with an expired driver’s licence. The vehicle’s registration had also expired. Officers could also smell cannabis coming from inside the vehicle, and Gordon showed signs that he had been consuming the drug.
FOUR TIMES LEGAL LIMIT OF THC
Gordon was arrested after failing a roadside screening test from an approved device (Sotoxa) that detects THC or tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. Gordon then provided police with a sample of his blood for analysis, which showed he had a blood-drug concentration of 20 nanograms (ng) of THC in one millilitre of blood. Gordon’s blood-drug concentration was four times over the legal limit of five nanograms.
Gordon represented himself in court on Oct. 31.
When Gordon started to comment about his cannabis use and the offence, Orr interrupted and asked him if he listens to the radio.
“The government has been advertising on a very regular basis – hourly, daily ... you’ve got to wait at least four hours after you smoke pot before you can be out driving,” she said.
Orr then sentenced Gordon to 10 days in jail, a $2,000 fine and a $600 victim surcharge.
Gordon was allowed to serve the sentence on weekends. He was also banned from driving for one year plus the time in jail.
Gordon did not have a prior criminal record.
IMPAIRED BY CANNABIS ENFORCEMENT
The RCMP has been using the roadside screening device Sotoxa in P.E.I. since November 2021, said Const. Jamie Parsons of the Provincial Priority Traffic Unit in an interview with Saltwire Network. Since then, Parsons and his partner, Const. Stephen Duggan, have alone arrested and charged a total of 47 drivers for allegations of impaired driving involving THC levels. About 90 per cent of those incidents occurred during daytime hours, he added.
If a driver is showing signs of cannabis use, such as watery and blood shot eyes, as well as an odour of the drug coming from inside the vehicle, that gives officers the legal grounds to read a roadside screening demand to administer the Sotoxa test.
The roadside test involves a saliva sample being taken by swabbing the inside of a suspected impaired driver’s mouth. The saliva sample is then placed inside the Sotoxa device and tested for THC.
BLOOD SAMPLES
Parsons said a fail reading tells police that the driver has had recent THC consumption. A fail reading also gives police legal grounds for an arrest and to read the suspect a demand for blood samples to be taken at a local hospital. The blood samples are then sent to a laboratory in Ottawa for analysis.
When a driver fails the roadside test for THC, a seven-day driving suspension is issued; however, the decision on whether to lay criminal charges is made when police receive the results of the drug-blood analysis.
Parsons said that due to a backlog of cases, it can take six to seven months to receive the results of the blood samples. In Gordon’s case, roughly eight months passed from the time he was arrested to his guilty plea and sentence in court.
Parsons noted that times have changed, and police officers have the technology to enforce driving impairment in cases involving drugs as well as alcohol.
“We’ve got to keep up with modern technology and combat impaired driving the best we can. And, this is one tool I can personally say is a very useful tool for police, and it’s going to benefit everybody. It’s going to make the roads safer for everyone for sure,” he said.