ADDICTS HELP POLICE ID THOSE HIGH AT THE WHEEL

Drug Impairment Training Program Wins Praise

EDMONTON - Police officers are praising the mutual benefits of
including drug addicts in their training to recognize drivers who are
high behind the wheel.

RCMP Cpl. Evan Graham, the national co-ordinator of the Drug
Recognition Expert program, said it is important for officers to meet
with daily drug users so they can recognize and classify levels of
impairment.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse agrees. Senior research
associate Doug Beirness said such face-to-face training is necessary.

"It is essential that police are able to do that. It's hands-on
training," Beirness said. "Can you imagine trying to diagnose a
patient with pneumonia if you had never seen a patient with pneumonia?"

On Dec. 2, Graham held a training session in Edmonton for both
Mounties and city police officers. Metis Family and Child Services
recruited nine volunteers, all daily drug users, to come in for an
hour of the two-week course. There were three men and six women, all
over 18 and from various backgrounds. Some were sex-trade workers.

The volunteers are not given illegal drugs nor are any such substances
present at the course, Graham emphasized. "Anyone who volunteers is
told explicitly that if they bring drugs, they will be charged."

When volunteers arrive, they are tested for impairment through
co-ordination exercises. "If they're not impaired, frankly, they are
of little use to us," Graham said. Those who are impaired are then
presented to training officers so police can recognize different
levels of impairment and the types of drugs that cause it. Such
knowledge is important in the absence of any technology -- like a
breathalyzer for alcohol -- to measure the level and cause of a high,
said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Wayne Oakes.

Beirness said that officers would see drug-induced conditions they
might not see elsewhere, such as an involuntary jerking of the eyes.

At the end of the hour volunteers are asked if they would supply a
urine sample to confirm the type and level of drugs in their system.

Police also believe the experience educates users on how police
officers deal with drug-impaired people. A common question people ask
is how police officers know someone is high by looking at them, Oakes
said.

The program has other benefits, said Donald Langford of Metis Child
and Family Services. "I think it was a good exercise for building
relationships between the aboriginal community, people on the street
and city police."

Some of the volunteers said they would come back and help with
training again, Graham said.

There has been one complaint about the federally approved program, but
it did not come from any of the participants or volunteers, Deputy
Chief Mike Bradshaw said Friday.

He said officers are conducting an internal investigation because of
the complaint.

Bradshaw spoke well of the training and said he expected it to be held
in Edmonton for a second time.

Volunteers can supply fictional names to the attending officers. They
are not paid for their involvement.

A federal bill, Bill-32, that focuses on catching drivers who sit
behind the wheel while high, was tabled last year.

Such training has been going on across Canada since 1995, when it was
federally approved. More than 30 U.S. states have such training
programs, Beirness said.