LOCAL POLICE FORCES CONCERNED ABOUT DRUGGED DRIVERS

Police say they are unarmed to fight the growing number of Islanders who
drive under the influence of drugs. Only 24 police officers across Canada
- -- and just one in P.E.I. -- have the specialized training needed to charge
somebody who may be behind the wheel of a car while under the influence of
either prescription or non-prescription drugs.

Charlottetown Deputy Police Chief Richard Collins says it is imperative
more police officers are trained to spot drivers who may be under the
influence of drugs and legislation must be changed to give police officers
more powers to crack down on these drivers.

"Right now, we have to wait until somebody is involved in an accident
involving injury or death in order to get a demand for a blood sample,"
Collins told MLAs on Tuesday.

"I really think we're missing a target group here that is out there. We
cannot be talking about the abuse of OxyContin and other types of narcotics
and not draw the conclusion or inference that some of these people are
driving. I think it's probably one of the most serious and significant
issues out there today."

Collins appeared Tuesday before the legislature's Standing Committee on
Social Development which is investigating ways to combat drinking and driving.

He said while they may be winning the war on drinking and driving, he's
worried about the number of people who may be drugged and driving and
getting away with it.

"It is imperative that training of officers as drug recognition experts be
escalated to deal with the increased number of individuals driving under
these influences."

But the training comes at a price.

Officers must spend two to four weeks at a training centre in Nevada and
Collins admits he doesn't have the money in his budget to send officers for
that kind of training.

The situation is the same at police forces across the province.

RCMP Superintendent Russ Mirasty, who now heads up the RCMP in P.E.I.,
shares Collins' concern. He said they are pleased to have one of their
members trained in drug recognition but he said more officers must be trained.

"One of our members has taken the first phase of the training and that was
two weeks," said Mirasty.

"The final phase is to go to an area and evaluate people actually under the
influence of different drugs and they have to successfully identify classes
of drugs in eight out of 10 cases. That's then confirmed by toxicology."

The federal government is proposing changes to the Criminal Code, through
Bill C-16, that would give new powers to the police to fight drugged drivers.

But Collins warns police won't be ready to enforce that bill unless more
officers are trained. He said without proper training any charges that
police lay will be thrown out of court.

"It hasn't been a training priority and once again with training comes
budgetary restraints. The two come hand in hand. Now, we're playing catch-up.

"But the reality of it is the training has to start and it has to be at an
escalated pace."

Proposed legislative changes that would decriminalize marijuana are only
heightening the police officials' concerns about the lack of police
officers trained in drug recognition.

Collins said that will create a "more blatant, flagrant use" or marijuana.

"For too long we've associated impaired driving with alcohol as opposed to
drugs," he said.

"If the legislation was to advance, you could well see people driving
around, because of no criminal repercussions, you could see people driving
around quite wantonly smoking marijuana."