TORIES LOWER BOOM ON DRUG-IMPAIRED DRIVERS

Substance Abuse All the Same, Says Family of Local Man Killed By Driver on Meth

KITCHENER, Ont. - The federal government will introduce legislation
this month to crack down on drivers who get behind the wheel while
high on drugs, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Friday.

The promised bill will increase penalties for drugged drivers,
provide police with more tools to detect when motorists are high and
promote increased awareness of the problem, the prime minister said.

Canadian society needs to take the threat posed by those who drive
under the influence of drugs as seriously as the one posed by
drinking and driving, Harper told a news conference in Kitchener,
Ont., an hour's drive west of Toronto.

"When most Canadians think of impaired driving, they think of drunk
driving," Harper said. "But increasingly, police have to contend with
drug-impaired driving: operating a vehicle while under the influence
of narcotics. Just like a drunk driver, a drug-impaired driver
presents a danger, to himself or herself and to others."

The legislation, to be introduced when the House of Commons returns
from its Remembrance Day break, will "strengthen presumptions" of
breath and blood tests for drug-impaired drivers, although testing
for drug impairment in Canada is problematic.

"There are technological challenges in terms of testing for certain
kinds of drugs," Harper acknowledged.

"But there are things we can do, and will be doing and work will
continue on the development of technology as well."

Mothers Against Drunk Driving officials noted there are a number of
reliable drug tests in use in the United States which could be easily
adopted in Canada under the proposed bill.

Andrew Murie, chief executive of MADD Canada, said the legislation
will need to deliver in three key areas to be effective.

If a driver thought to be impaired passes a roadside blood alcohol
test but fails a standard sobriety test, such as walking a straight
line or touching their nose, officers need the authority to bring
them to the police station, Murie said.

Once there, the driver would be examined by a drug recognition expert
looking for symptoms of drug impairment. Should the expert determine
the person is on drugs, police would then need the power to take
either a blood or saliva sample.

"We feel very confident (the proposed legislation) will include the
things we need to have," Murie said after emerging from a closed-door
meeting with Harper.

Liberal associate justice critic Brian Murphy said his party will
support the bill, meaning it would receive a majority in the House of Commons.

"We hope that the prime minister and the minister of justice will
develop some programming, some dollars to give the police forces the
tools necessary to detect people under the influence of drugs," he said.

"But we look forward to receiving the bill and we're in favour of it."

The former Liberal government introduced a bill on drug-impaired
driving in 2004, just before the federal election, but it was never passed.

Edmonton-area families who have lost loved ones on the road because
of motorists high on drugs agreed with the prime minister's plan.

"A substance is a substance and impaired driving is impaired driving,
regardless of if you're using weed, coke, meth or ecstasy," Tracy
Palmquist said. Her brother, Joseph Palmquist, died on his way to
work in February 2005 after a teen driver high on methamphetamine
plowed into his truck.

"It might look different, but it all has the same result," she said.

For the Palmquists, that result was the devastating loss of a
brother, son, husband and father of three.

"The impact has been huge," Tracy said. "To see my parents lose an
only son. I know my brother's twins won't remember him at all. They
were two and a half when Joey was killed. His daughter was only four."

The teen driver, now 18, was sentenced last week to eight months in a
young offender centre, four months of supervision for dangerous
driving and a subsequent one-year driving ban.

Jacob Wagensveld's 20-year-old brother Kenneth, and his fiancee Susan
MacLeod, died in September 1991 when a driver high on cocaine plowed
into their car after leading police on a high-speed chase. Wagensveld
called Harper's announcement "wonderful."

"I think anything you put into your body to create an impairment, it
should be all rated the same and not put into categories," he said.

"I know a lot of people who still smoke marijuana and they just think
it's an everyday thing.

"The guy who killed my brother, he would have been high for two more
days, he had so much cocaine in him."

The 31-year-old driver was given a seven-year sentence for criminal
negligence while operating a motor vehicle and causing death, and an
additional year for leaving an accident scene.

Wagensveld still feels his brother's absence. "My kids don't have an
uncle. They never met Ken and every day I think about him.

"Every day, I wonder a lot of what-ifs. What if he was still around?
What would he be doing?"