DRIVING HIGH

Police Are Catching More Stoned People Getting Behind The Wheel

As the Counterattack Road Check season winds down, Saanich police
were surprised by one memorable night that saw the number of drivers
caught driving while high on marijuana exceed those caught for
drinking and driving.

On the evening of Dec. 18, five high drivers were handed 24-hour
driving suspensions. One driver rolled into the road check with a
joint in hand.

"Amongst pot users there is that belief that of all the drugs,
smoking marijuana is the least of all evils. The truth of the matter
is any drug impairs people's judgment and decision-making ability,
which driving requires," said Saanich police Sgt. John Price. "I
think we've seen an increase in the number of pot users getting
24-hour suspensions and, occasionally, impaired driving convictions."

A 2003 Ontario survey also found that drug-impaired driving is on the
rise, with 20 per cent of high school drivers who were surveyed
admitting to getting behind the wheel within one hour of using
marijuana at least once the previous year.

Scott Macdonald, assistant director at the Centre for Addictions
Research B.C. and professor at UVic's School of Health Information
Science, found a high proportion of people who drove after using
marijuana said they tended to slow down and drive more carefully. He
said marijuana, unlike alcohol or other drugs such as cocaine, tends
to make users aware of their impairment and causes them to compensate.

"The question is whether they're able to do that or not," he said.

Several countries have undertaken studies to determine what effect
marijuana has on the likelihood of a person getting into a car crash.

"The well-controlled [studies] have pretty much shown that marijuana
is a risk factor for crashes," he said. "People are somewhere between
two and five times more likely to be involved in a crash if they're
high on marijuana."

But while the rules around being impaired by drugs or alcohol while
driving are the same, Price and Macdonald agreed it's harder for
police to detect a particular drug than it is to detect alcohol,
which can be identified by smell and through a breathalyzer test.

"We don't have anything like the breathalyzer to determine if there's
active THC in the system," said Macdonald. "You can do blood
analyses, and that's rather invasive."

Currently, the law prevents police from demanding a person suspected
of driving while high go to a police station for further
investigation and testing. As a result, said Price, there are fewer
impaired driving convictions for drugs compared to alcohol.

But the federal government wants to change that. Introduced in 2004,
Bill C-16 is waiting for a second reading in the House of Commons. It
would amend the Criminal Code in an effort to increase police ability
to convict drug-impaired drivers.

The bill would let police demand that suspected impaired drivers
submit to Standardized Field Sobriety Tests, which include physical
tests such as the one-leg stand. Bill C-16 would also allow police to
demand that drivers submit to an evaluation by a drug recognition
expert at a police station, as well as provide fluid samples. For
suspicion of marijuana use, this would mean a blood test because the
drug remains in the system months after use, making a urine test ineffective.

Bill C-16 would also increase penalties for convictions, with fines
for a first offence rising from $600 to $1,000. The minimum mandatory
sentence for a second offence would increase from 14 to 30 days, and
from 90 to 120 days for a third offence.

Gayle Quin, vice-president of the Cannabis Buyer's Club of Canada,
said she finds smoking marijuana makes her a more careful driver. But
she warned that eating marijuana can make a person drowsy, and
therefore dangerous behind the wheel of a car.

Macdonald said eating cannabis can be more dangerous because it's
harder to gauge the dosag and the effects are delayed.

"It is a risk factor for crashes - I think the literature is becoming
more convinced of that," he said. "But at the same time, it's not
nearly in the same league as alcohol."

But police aren't considering marijuana's relative dangers.

"We're looking for everybody who might have made a poor decision when
they go behind the wheel of the car," said Price, who added that
there's a simple solution to staying safe and away from police
scrutiny: abstinence from drugs and alcohol.

"Surely to God one in your group is willing to abstain one night so
everyone can get home safely."