LEGAL LIMITS NEEDED ON DRIVERS' DRUG USE

AT THE END OF 2007, Alberta's highest court ruled, in effect, that
public safety can override human rights legislation when it comes to drug use.

As we see it, the time is ripe for the same philosophy to be applied
when it comes to highway traffic safety.

The landmark case involved the right of a construction company based
at the Syncrude project in the Alberta Oil Sands to enforce a ban on
any form of illegal drug use by an employee in a job where there's a
high risk of accidents. The employee was fired in 2002 when mandatory
pre-employment drug test showed traces of marijuana had remained in
his system five days after he smoked the pot.

The employee, John Chiasson, complained to to the Alberta Human
Rights and Citizenship Commission, but a hearing panel dismissed the
complaint. A Court of Queen's Bench judge overturned the panel's
ruling, but the Court of Appeal restored the original decision.

There were two key points involved. The first was the right of a
company to enforce a zero-tolerance rule, and the second the right of
an individual to act in a manner that might endanger others. Those
ingredients, surely, should apply in the case of highway traffic safety.

The Criminal Code and the Highway Traffic Act already have provisions
against driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol and the Code sets
a legal limit of .08 parts per 100 millilitres in a driver's blood.
But there's no similar limit set for drug-impairment.

Highway traffic is at least as safety-sensitive as any construction
job. We would suggest that the statistics would bear that out.

As we see it, the statutes should be amended to establish a guideline
on drug-induced impairment. Granted, this might give rise to cases in
which a driver had been both drinking and toking and while his
blood-alcohol and drug levels were within the legal limit, the
combination rendered him unfit to drive.

But hopefully our legislators have enough intelligence to iron out
any possible enforcement complications. In the interests of public
safety, they should take a cue from the Alberta court and find a way
to outlaw drug use on the highways.