LEVEL PLAYING FIELD FOR DRINKERS AND DOPERS

Whether you are soused from alcohol or high on whatever, the result
is the same when you get behind the wheel. You are a potential killer.

The only real difference is those impaired by drugs have been getting
away with it for years.

That's because, in Canada's Criminal Code, there was no authority for
police to demand a physical sobriety test or bodily fluid samples to
determine drug impairment.

Canada's Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has put an end to that.

And while the Conservatives have done very little about escalating
major justice issues across the land, they need to be applauded for
this latest revision to the Criminal Code. In late June, Nicholson
announced new rules allowing police officers to take suspected
drug-impaired drivers to the station for a 45-minute evaluation that
will help determine if they are impaired by drugs. This could be done
along with a roadside field sobriety test.

Refusing to do so is now a criminal offence and punishable with
similar penalties as refusing a breathalyzer test.

A suspect is likely to be asked for a sample of bodily fluid - the
most common and easiest being urine samples. But it's not, as critics
have charged, police pulling over vehicles right and left checking
for pot or other mind-altering substances.

"We're not going to demand you pee in a bottle at the side of the
street," says Patrol Sgt. Damian Turner, of the Winnipeg Police Service.

Turner is a drug recognition expert and his job will be in the
limelight in the coming months, thanks to Nicholson's announcement.

The new law, part of the Conservatives' omnibus crime bill, is a good
move. Drug-impaired driving has been an offence in Canada for many
years. But convicting someone of it was always a challenge for
police. The objective of the new regulations is to give police a
workable tool for investigating this crime.

"Proving this was always difficult. With this tool, we now can build
a case against suspects," Turner told the Winnipeg Sun.

So it's become a level playing field for drinkers and dopers alike.
No longer will people take drugs of any kind, then jump in the car
without risking being stopped, and perhaps tested, for drug use.

Law enforcers, the courts and citizens' groups have led the charge
over the past decade to get drunks off the roads. And they are
winning the battle. Almost everywhere charges are up and deaths are down.

But how many deaths have been caused by drivers being in a drug-induced haze?

While the numbers are difficult to pinpoint, police believe
drug-impaired driving is on the increase. The Ontario Drug Use Survey
in 2003 found close to 20 per cent of Ontario's high school drivers
reported driving within one hour of using cannabis, at least once in
the previous year. In Manitoba, chances are the numbers are the same,
if not higher.

With the emergence of drugs like ecstasy, as well as more open-minded
views on pot use, it suggests this problem will only grow in the coming years.

Lawyers are already scrambling to nab the first person who challenges
this law under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Challenge if you must, but just like breathalyzer tests, public
safety will trump your rights.

Paul Rutherford is a Sun Media columnist from Winnipeg.