REPORT SAYS FERRIES GOING TO POT

Crew Of Doomed Queen Of The North Routinely Smoked Marijuana

The Transportation Safety Board says pot-smoking ferry crew -- who
still smoke marijuana between shifts "to this day" -- may one day
cause a serious accident.

The board says B.C. Ferries failed to effectively enforce its
zero-tolerance drug policy aboard the ill-fated Queen of the North,
and wants the problem fixed.

Company president David Hahn says having a drug policy doesn't go far
enough. He wants the board's final report on the sinking of Queen of
the North in 2006 to recommend mandatory drug testing of employees,
which is not legally permitted in Canada.

He says he's willing to be tested as often as required -- and to
require the same of all managers in safety-sensitive positions.

As part of its investigation of the sinking of the Queen of the North
in March of 2006, the federal Transportation Safety Board issued a
letter yesterday about how effectively B.C. Ferries enforces its
two-year-old "zero-tolerance" drug policy.

It said there was "no evidence that the performance of either the
fourth officer or the quartermaster on the bridge that night [of the
sinking] was impaired."

But it said there was evidence that crew routinely smoked cannabis
between shifts on the liveaboard ferry and that senior officers
routinely failed to enforce the company policy barring the practice.

The Canadian Coast Guard has the right to test ferry crew following
marine accidents, but no tests were done on the 42 crew who escaped
the sunken ferry.

Hahn said the company wanted testing done after the sinking.

He said the company has dismissed employees for drug or alcohol use,
although he declined to say how many, and that others who admitted to
problems were offered treatment.

Hahn -- who is from the U.S., where mandatory testing is permitted --
conceded that testing for cannabis has been rejected in Canada
because results show only past use, generally going back about a
month, and not impairment at the time of testing.

John Cottreau, the board's spokesman, said yesterday that information
about cannabis use by crew on board the Queen of the North was
brought to the board's attention early this summer.

Subsequent interviews revealed "a pattern" of crew use of cannabis
"and we have every reason to believe the practice continues to this
day," he said.

The TSB's letter, addressed to Hahn and the federal transport minister, says:

- - The company has a zero-tolerance for drugs and alcohol and a rule
banning both from live-aboard vessels such as the Queen of the North,
but crew were regularly using cannabis anyway, insufficiently aware
it could affect their fitness on later shifts or during off hours if
an emergency arose. And not all senior crew members aboard the ferry
"consistently took sufficient action to ensure the company's
no-tolerance policy was strictly adhered to."

- - Use of cannabis by crews creates an "unsafe condition, one that
could lead to a serious accident."

Jackie Miller, president of the ferry workers' union, said the union
opposes mandatory testing but does not condone drug use on the job.
She said she was personally unaware of cannabis use by crew on the
northern ferry and that the issue had never been brought to the joint
safety committee.

She also said that while drug and alcohol use by crew likely
reflected their use in the general community, she wanted to see more
focus on all factors that impair crew performance -- including
fatigue caused by shift work, a problem acknowledged internationally
as a major factor in maritime accidents.

Premier Gordon Campbell said yesterday that "the [drug] problem is a
real one." He said B.C. would work with Ottawa, which has
jurisdiction over ferries.

WORKPLACE DRUG TESTS

- - Canadian courts have rejected mandatory testing for cannabis use
because current tests indicate only that the drug has been used in
the recent past, not that performance is impaired at the time of
testing (as in the case of breathalyzer testing for blood-alcohol levels).

- - Critics argue that because cannabis takes so long to clear the
body, mandatory testing promotes use of drugs such as cocaine that
are passed by the body more quickly.

- - The coast guard and police can administer drug tests after marine
accidents. They did not do so after the Queen of the North sank with
the loss of two lives. Commercial companies, including Seaspan
International, test their employees after accidents, with the union's
agreement.

- - In the U.S., marine operators are allowed to do mandatory and
random drug testing. Both Washington and Alaska state ferries do so,
although their unions argue that after an initial weeding out of a
small number of crew, random tests waste money by unnecessarily
testing a set quota of workers who are of no concern.