City police prepare for pot
Officers are trained to spot signs of drivers impaired by marijuana
City police are holding off on using a new roadside cannabis-testing device until they’ve seen it in action.
“We’re taking a wait-and-see approach,” said Tim Farquharson, Peterborough Police Service deputy police chief.
In late August, the minister of justice and attorney general of Canada approved the Draeger Drugtest 5000, a salvia-based marijuana test, for police use.
It will allow officers to take a sample from a suspected drugimpaired driver to determine the level of THC, the intoxicating element in cannabis, in their system.
Tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly known as THC, is the ingredient in pot that gets you high.
With the legalization of marijuana expected to be official on Oct. 17, new legislation come into play Dec. 18 to deal with its effect on driver safety.
Drivers won’t be able to have more than 2 nanograms of THC in their system, or they’ll be deemed impaired.
For young and novice drivers, however, there’s zero tolerance. As with current alcohol/driving rules, any amount of THC is illegal.
According to the Canada’s department of justice, impaired driving is the leading criminal cause of death and injury in Canada. In 2016, there were more than 70,000 impaired driving incidents reported by the police, including almost 3,000 drugimpaired driving incidents.
Consequences for drugged driving increase with the amount of THC in the driver’s system, in the same way penalties work for alcohol-impaired driving. Drivers can have their license suspended, face fines, criminal charges and even jail time.
Currently, city police use officers trained in Standard Field Sobriety Testing (SFTS) to make the call. They look for red eyes, muscle tremours, speech patterns, and agitation, for example.
City police have 22 officers trained in SFTS. Farquharson said they’re aiming to train all 85 front-line officers in the near future, but there are training-time challenges to overcome.
For now, there’s at least one SFTS-trained officer per shift. That way, if an untrained officer suspects a driver is drug-impaired, they’ll able to call the SFTS officer for support.
Drug Recognition Experts (DRE) are also able to determine if someone is driving high. City police have two DRE officers. The department is aiming to have another DRE-trained officer by
next year. Training is only available in Jacksonville, Florida and costs about $5,000.
City police are now awaiting new training packages to update them on the new legislation, Farquharson said.
Even with the new training, though, only DRE or SFTS-trained officers will be able to distinguish if someone is high.
As for the Draeger Drugtest, it’s about $5,000 a pop and the saliva testing strips could cost up to $20 a piece.
That’s a far cry from the pennies it costs for the plastic tubes for a breathalyzer, Farquharson said.
Although the Draeger has been approved, there have been reports that it has issues in cold weather. That’s one of the reasons Farquharson said city police want to wait to purchase one.
“We’re not going to be rushing out, until we hear from some of our counterparts,” the deputy chief said.
The 2018 police budget also doesn’t include the Draeger or its strips.
That could change, Farquharson said, but it makes sense to see how the device fares in the winter.
“Six months from now, we might say we need to buy 10 of these,” he said.
Police concerns go beyond roadside testing for drugged drivers. Once pot is legal, police expect to encounter people with it more often.
Smoking it in public places in Ontario will be illegal, with the province’s Cannabis Act levying fines of $1,000 for first-timers and up to $5,000 for repeat offenders. However, a person will be able to travel outside their home with up to 30 grams (about an ounce) of cannabis at a time.
That poses many problems, Farquharson said.
How will police know if it’s been legally or illegally purchased? And what if there are six people in a vehicle carrying 180 grams of weed? It could be trafficking, but if each person claims 30 grams, what then?
“You can see how many court challenges they’ll be over the next decade,” he said.
Until the laws are crystal-clear, Farquharson said, officers will need to use discretion when dealing with drug-impaired drivers.