EMERY SAYS - 'PEOPLE DON'T SPEED ON POT'

Critics Quick To Point Out Flaw In Logic Of Marijuana Advocate

A stoned driver is a safer driver, B.C.'s leading marijuana advocate
says.

"Cannabis will likely improve your driving," Marc Emery, president of
the B.C. Marijuana Party, said yesterday. "Marijuana doesn't impair
you in driving. People don't speed on pot. People go slower, they're
more cautious. They're not in a rush to get to where they're going."

On Monday, the federal government reintroduced legislation to
decriminalize pot possession for personal use, and retabled a bill to
give police the power to make drivers submit to drug testing. Emery
argued that his experience in the marijuana culture shows driving
while high is safe.

"I've smoked every day of my life and I've driven. I've never had an
accident in 26 years of driving," he said. "I've been around pot
people all my life and I don't know anybody who's had an accident
while they've been stoned."

His logic doesn't fly with Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

"The guy doesn't know what he's talking about," said MADD Canada CEO
Andrew Murie. "[He's] using that old '70s thing: 'Oh, man, you know,
I'm so relaxed.' But you know, if you're so relaxed, and a
life-and-death situation appears in front of you, you can't react to
that. Who sanctioned mellow drivers as the best drivers? We want
people alert, in full use of their faculties."

Vancouver RCMP forensic toxicologist Rick Ulrich said scientific
studies have shown marijuana, which has an active ingredient called
THC, is "the No. 2 drug behind alcohol in fatal accidents."

His own experience backs that up, Ulrich said.

"I've been involved in testing blood for THC for at least 18 years
and, yes, I've found it in numerous cases being present in the blood
in both fatal and impaired-driving cases.

"It's a different type of impairment than alcohol, but just as
deadly."

Federal Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan yesterday defended the
government's move toward decriminalization.

But she added: "The message, whether it's from me, whether it's from
the minister of justice, the minister of health, is that marijuana
continues to be illegal in this country, and you're pretty stupid, in
most cases, if you smoke it."

On Aug. 31, a teen driver was convicted of dangerous driving in a
Langley crash that killed two 16-year-olds, but he was found not
guilty of being impaired by marijuana. Judge W.G. MacDonald noted that
"the current state of the law makes it very difficult to prosecute
anyone for the offence of impairment by marijuana."

Under the new legislation, police with reasonable grounds to suspect a
driver has been smoking pot would be able to demand that the motorist
provide a blood, urine or saliva test, and refusal could result in a
criminal charge. Test results, along with results of roadside sobriety
tests and officer observations of impairment indicators, such as red
eyes and the reek of marijuana, would become evidence for prosecution,
Ulrich said.

The new legislation would impose a $150 pot-possession fine for adults
and $100 for minors holding 15 grams or less -- enough to roll about
30 joints.

Anybody caught with more than 15 grams would still face jail time --
with a possible six months in prison -- and a maximum fine of $1,000.