HARPER TAKES ON 'DRUG DRIVING'

Drivers who toke and take the wheel will face stiffer testing and
penalties under new federal drug and driving legislation.

The changes were announced Friday morning by Prime Minister Stephen
Harper at the Holiday Inn in Kitchener, with members of Mothers
Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and families touched by the tragedy of
impaired driving in attendance.

MADD Canada launched its annual Red Ribbon campaign to raise awareness
of impaired driving through the busy holiday season, and the prime
minister used the occasion to serve notice that those who take drugs
and drive will face the same stringent testing that drunk drivers now
do.

"The statistics on impaired driving still leave a lot to be desired,"
said Harper. "Just as governments once took action on drunk driving,
we must act today to make drug-impaired driving just as socially
unacceptable."

That's why his government will introduce new legislation when the
House of Commons resumes sitting to target drug driving, he said.

Under the proposed legislation, the government will provide police
with more tools to detect drug-impaired drivers, increase the
penalties for drug driving, allow for more blood testing and partner
with groups like MADD to educate people of the dangers of getting
behind the wheel when high.

Harper said it was part of his government's committment to get tougher
on crime when they came into office, and is another one of the crime
bills it has introduced since taking office last January.

Some of those bills have been bogged down in Parliament, with only
five significant pieces of legislation being passed since the
Conservatives took control with a minority government.

The prime minister got a little testy with all the roadblocks that
have been thrown up in front of his government by the Opposition, and
challenged them to live up to their campaign promises.

"We promised to deal toughly with crime when we ran for office... but
it wasn't just us, all of the parties promised to do this," said
Harper. "I don't think this is contentious legislation.

"This is only contentious legislation if you don't really want to pass
it in the first place, and that's the problem with the
Opposition."

While the battles in Ottawa dominated most of the discussion, the
details of the new legislation were also discussed.

The biggest concern was over a reliable test for drug impairment, like
a breathalyzer for alcohol impairment.

"There are technological challenges in terms of testing for certain
kinds of drugs," said Harper. "At the same time, there are some tests
available, and there are ways of strengthening the legislation to make
it easier to arrest and get convictions for clear cases of
impairment."

Funding this new drug testing was also a concern - with the federal
government recently cancelling a $4-million RCMP program for this type
of drug testing - and whether there would be money in the future for
this program.

"Yes, this government will work on the implementation of this and
providing funds for that," said Harper.

Local police applauded the new drug-driving program, though they were
still waiting on all the details of how it would be
implemented.

The Waterloo Regional Police Service already employs some drug
recognition officers, who are able to identify people under the
influence of controlled substances.

"This is great news for us," said Waterloo Regional Police Chief Larry
Gravill. "Police leaders across this country have been asking for some
time for additional tools to deal with drug-impaired driving.

"We don't have the real specifics of how the legislation will roll
out, but any additional tools that are going to allow us to reduce
accidents and are going to make our roads safer, we're fully
supportive of."

Sandra Henderson, president of the Waterloo chapter of MADD, was also
supportive of the proposed legislation.

While MADD's focus is still on drunk driving, they've also pushed the
government to act on drug driving, she said.

"There have been so many crashes through drug impairment and nothing
happens to them," said Henderson, who shared the stage with the Ryder
family from Ottawa who lost a son to a driver high on marijuana. "You
can't do the blood testing right now, so what do you do? You just let
them off."

Henderson also had a private meeting with the prime minister where she
brought up MADD's drive to lower the legal alcohol limit to .05 like
it is in countries like Australia.

There is currently a private member's bill before Parliament,
sponsored by a Conservative MPP, that the prime minister said his
government is supporting.

"Our number 1 wish is still to lower the legal limit to .05, and in
the meeting he asked what the one thing was we really wanted," said
Henderson, whose daughter, Nancy, was killed by a drunk driver 14
years ago who was almost four times over the legal limit. "Hopefully,
with this private member's bill before Parliament, by springtime this
will be law."

Henderson also pressed Harper to end conditional sentencing and house
arrest for drunk drivers who cause bodily harm.

She was impressed by the interest he took in the issue.

"That's just not acceptable because it is a violent crime," said.
"We're really excited because if they listen to one thing, maybe
they'll listen to all of our concerns.

"The prime minister was writing everything down, and said he didn't
realize that was happening himself."