POLICE GET NEW POWERS TO TEST DRIVERS FOR DRUGS

Drinking And Driving Penalties Also Going Up

Police across Canada will have new powers to investigate drivers
suspected of being impaired by drugs starting July 2, when penalties
for driving while impaired will also go up.

Police who suspect drug impairment will have authority to require
roadside physical co-ordination tests to gauge sobriety. If, in the
opinion of the officer, the suspect fails, then the driver will be
taken to a police detachment to be tested by a "drug evaluation
expert," which all police services will likely have to train.

Neither city police officials or the South Bruce OPP media relations
officer were familiar enough with the changes to comment.

However, Ontario Provincial Police Chief Superintendent Bill
Grodzinski, commander of the OPP highway safety division, said
Wednesday that "what we're seeing is a very significant shift . . .
What we're seeing is more drug-impaired operators."

The legislation "provides police with that additional help that we want."

The drug evaluations experts will have authority to demand samples of
saliva, urine or blood to determine the presence of alcohol or a drug
without a warrant, Department of Justice spokeswoman Carole Saindon said.

Tests on the fluids can detect seven families of drugs, although
there's no specific drug impairment level as there is for alcohol.

It will take "a number of years" to train enough officers as drug
evaluation experts, said Grodzinski, the chairman of an Ontario
Association of Chiefs of Police committee consulted about the legislation.

The drug evaluations will include measurements of blood pressure,
body temperature and pulse, assess pupil size and muscle tone to
determine impairment, Saindon said. The legislation allows roadside
and detachment tests to be video-recorded.

The changes are part of the federal government's Tackling Violent
Crime Bill, some aspects of which have already taken effect including
higher mandatory prison sentences for violent crimes, making it
tougher to get bail and raising the age of sexual consent.

Minimum penalties for impaired driving by alcohol or a drug will
climb to $1,000 from $600 for a first offence, 30 days in jail
instead of 14 upon a second conviction and 120 days in jail for
subsequent convictions, up from 90 days.

Refusing or failing to comply with police demands for drug sobriety
tests or bodily fluid samples will lead to the same minimum $1,000
fine and one-year driving prohibition on a first offence as would be
imposed for a drinking and driving conviction.

It will also be an offence for a driver who knows or should know they
have caused a fatal accident to refuse to take a drug impairment test
or provide samples. The maximum penalty under that provision is a
life sentence.

Grodzinski also noted new, more accurate, breath-testing equipment
should be arriving at OPP detachments this fall at a cost of $2 million.

"Impaired driving continues to be the leading cause of criminal death
in Canada" despite great reductions over the years. In Ontario, about
one-quarter of the road fatalities are alcohol-related, according to
the Ministry of Transportation.

Meanwhile, provincial legislation will target drivers with some
alcohol in their system, but not enough to be charged criminally.

Grodzinski said they will be "the toughest sanctions in the country
and everyone is looking at them" when they take effect, which he
understands will happen this fall.

The Safer Roads for a Safer Ontario Act would increase roadside
driving suspensions for people who blow a warning, or 0.05 to 0.08
blood alcohol concentration, in roadside tests to three days for a
first offence instead of 12 hours and seven days for a second
offence. The driver will also have to take a remedial course.

Third or subsequent instances incur a 30-day suspension and the
driver must undergo a remedial measures course and limit their
driving to a vehicle with a ignition lock requiring breath samples
for six months.

The act also lets authorities seize vehicles from people who continue
to drink and drive.