N.S. POLICE ARE LEARNING HOW TO SNIFF OUT DOPE-SMOKING DRIVERS

Droopy Eyelids, Eyedrops On The Dash Give Stoners Away

Detecting stoned drivers in Nova Scotia may not be as easy as looking for a
roach in the ashtray or an empty chip bag in the back seat.

The Hamm government has proposed a new law that would give police the right
to suspend a license for 24 hours, if they believe a driver is under the
influence of a drug other than alcohol.

It would be "highly unlikely" untrained police officers would recognize
someone was stoned, said Wayne Jeffery, an RCMP toxicologist in Vancouver,
who teaches cops how to recognize signs of drug impairment.

"Alcohol impairment's easy to pick out because you have the physical signs
of impairment. Most drug impairment affects the brain, and you don't see the
gross physical signs of impairment. Unless you're trained to deal with this,
the police officer may not be able to pick it out."

But cops can take a four-day field sobriety course that makes detecting
stoned drivers "very easy," Jeffery said.

"First off, you've got to have some reason to stop the car," he said. "This
is very critical because, I'll be very honest, there are people who can
smoke marijuana who are not impaired."

Once police flick on their roof lights, drivers can give clues that they are
stoned if they stop too quickly or pull over too far on the side of the
road, he said.

Smoking pot, methamphetamine and crack cocaine in a car all produce
different odours.

But police wouldn't be able to tell for sure that a driver's stoned by
simply talking to them for 30 seconds through the car window, Jeffery said.

"They have to do field sobriety tests."

One test involves asking drivers to follow a pen horizontally with their
eyes.

"We're looking for how the eye tracks this," he said.

Jerky eye movement could mean someone is impaired.

Drooping eyelids can also telegraph that someone is stoned, said Greg
Johnstone, a Dartmouth forensic toxicologist who has also trained cops to
recognize drug use.

"The eyelids have very delicate muscles," Johnstone said. "The finer the
muscle control, the more quickly it's knocked out by depressant drugs."

The speed at which a person's eyes react also slow when smoking dope.

"Their eyes kind of move in a gradual line as opposed to a quick snap," he
said.

Eyedrops on the dash might also be a stoner's downfall.

"When you smoke dope, it causes a little bit of a reddening of blood vessels
in your eye," Johnstone said. "Sometimes what they'll do is put that in to
cause them to constrict, so the whites of your eyes look white instead of
bloodshot."

To determine if someone is stoned, cops can also ask drivers to walk a
straight line, turn and stand on one leg.

"These are tests which the average person, not impaired, can do very
easily," Jeffery said.

Another test involves getting people to tilt their head back and close their
eyes for 30 seconds.

"We're looking to see if they can estimate 30 seconds properly," Jeffery
said.

"Some drugs speed up this test, some slow it down."

Two local officers -- one from Halifax Regional Police and another with
Enfield RCMP -- recently completed a drug recognition expert training
course.

After two weeks of classroom work, participating cops have to do 12 drug
evaluations on actual drug impaired subjects.

"They're about 90 to 95 per cent correct in identifying what drug they're
under the influence of," Jeffery said.

"They can break it down into seven different classes of drugs."