GETTING DOPE OFF THE ROAD

For Years, Catching Drivers High on Drugs Was a Difficult Task, but
Starting This Week Police Have New Powers to Make a Case

If you think getting behind the wheel after smoking a joint is an
unenforceable crime, think again.

Amendments to the Criminal Code coming into effect Wednesday give
police new powers -- and new tests -- to catch drug-impaired drivers.

While laws against doping and driving have been on the books since
the 1920s, police have had few options when faced with drivers who
are impaired by something other than alcohol.

"You know something is up," said Staff Sgt. Scott Diefenbaker of the
Waterloo Regional Police traffic branch. "You're not smelling any
odour of alcohol. You may even have a couple roaches in the ashtray,
or you get the smell of marijuana.

"But taking the matter to court and prosecuting a drug-impaired
driver was a very difficult task."

Although a breathalyzer can detect alcohol, the tests for drugs are
costly and time-consuming. And -- until next week -- voluntary.

The new law obliges drivers to take a standardized field sobriety
test if police pull them over and suspect they are in any way
impaired. If drivers fail the test, police can order them back to the
station, where a specially trained drug recognition expert, known as
a DRE, may be called in.

"It's a big step forward," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said in
Toronto yesterday. "It's something that Mothers Against Drunk
Driving, law enforcement agencies, and people who have been victims
of impaired driving have been calling for quite some time."

The new law also imposes tougher penalties for all impaired drivers.
Those caught driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol will
face at least a $1,000 fine for a first offence, a minimum of 30 days
in jail for a second offence and 120 days in jail if they are caught
a third time.

The drug recognition expert program was developed by the Los Angles
Police Department in the 1980s. It has been running in British
Columbia on a voluntary basis since 1995.

The RCMP initially trained 24 officers as drug recognition experts.
There are now more than 500 certified officers at police services
across the country.

"It was anticipated as far back as 1995 that we would have some
legislation eventually," said RCMP Cpl. Evan Graham, national
co-ordinator of the drug-evaluation and classification-services
program. Waterloo Regional Police have nine officers trained as drug
recognition experts, the second highest number in the province after
York Region, according to Diefenbaker.

The recognition program involves a 12-step evaluation of a driver,
looking at such indicators as blood pressure, pupil size and the
ability to multi-task -- walking a straight line while talking to an
officer, for example.

"Driving is multi-tasking and you can't divide your attention when
you are under the influence," said Const. Heather Wilson, one of the
regional's drug recognition experts. Someone on cannabis, for
example, can only do one thing really well, she said. "They might be
able to drive within the lines really well, but they're not paying
attention to that red light."

Officers are trained to check for several classes of drugs:
depressants, including alcohol, barbiturates and benzodiazepines;
inhalants, such as glue; cannabis; hallucinogens; narcotics; PCP, and
stimulants, such as cocaine and methamphetamine.

Under the new law, refusing to participate becomes a criminal
offence, as it is now for drunk-driving suspects who won't provide a
breath sample.

"It really does level the playing field between alcohol and drugs
when it comes to impaired driving," said Doug Beirness, manager of
research and policy for the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

The aim of the new program is not to detect drug use, but to
determine a user's level of impairment. People using prescription
drugs correctly wouldn't have to worry.

The Centre on Substance Abuse has been studying the British Columbia
program for several years. Comparing results with laboratory
toxicological tests, the centre found that evaluators, on average,
correctly determined the classification of drugs involved in
impairment cases 90 per cent of the time.

"There have been claims that this is junk science and hocus-pocus
going on, and in fact it's not," Beirness said.

There have been some legal challenges to evidence obtained by drug
recognition experts. In an Alberta case, an appeals court judge ruled
the evaluation was "not sufficiently reliable to meet the standard of
relevance." Still, Beirness is confident the success rates he has
observed among evaluators will be strong enough to back up future challenges.

To become certified, officers must go through at least two weeks of
classroom training and several exams and quizzes. They must also
participate in 12 in-field evaluations and make the right call at
least 75 per cent of the time, said the Cpl. Evan Graham of the RCMP.

Beirness said he expects many of the people who will face
impaired-by-drugs charges in the coming months won't be high on
illegal drugs. "The kind of things that we're most concerned about
are people who are taking prescription medications for other reasons,
or using them inappropriately," he said. Anti-anxiety medications can
have effects that are severely impairing when mixed with even a small
amount of alcohol, he said.

Local police who have already received certification have been
conducting voluntary evaluations for several weeks. They have not met
with much resistance, Const. Heather Wilson said.

"That's because everybody thinks drugs do not cause impairment," she
said. "They think they can smoke a joint and jump in the car and not
realize that drug impairment can actually last longer than, say, one
drink in your system."

In two of the evaluations Wilson performed, impairment was ruled out
because of medical conditions. In the third, Wilson determined a
teenager was impaired by cannabis. Several youth surveys, including
one by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, indicate more teens
admit to smoking pot and driving than to drinking and driving. Four
years ago, 21 per cent of driving-age teens interviewed by the centre
said they had got behind the wheel within two hours of smoking pot.

"Young people in particular have this idea that driving after using
cannabis isn't as dangerous, or, 'I can't be caught, they can't do
anything to me,' " Beirness said.