MORE TRAINING COMING SOON TO HELP SPOT DRUG-IMPAIRED
DRIVERS

BLACKVILLE - A man who was pulled over in Doaktown showing some signs
of impaired driving by drug was eventually let go, because RCMP said
at the time there was not much evidence of impairment.

District 6 RCMP Cpl. Chuck Plaxton said the 43-year-old man had given
a "reasonable explanation" about why he may have had drugs in his system.

"However, the biggest problem we have right now is that we don't have
the same training in place" to identify an individual under the
influence of drugs, he explained.

"We're starting to. There's been a lot of history of impairment by
alcohol, but the history of impairment by drugs is only recent."

On Jan. 6, RCMP pulled over a man in Doaktown who had shown signs of
impairment but was eventually let go for reasons Plaxton would not
specify.

At 3:45 p.m. that same day, Miramichi police responded to a report of
a vehicle on Route 117 being struck from behind by the same
individual. 911 calls made earlier expressed concern over the erratic
driving.

The man is scheduled to appear in court at a later date on impaired
driving charges, as well as other traffic-related offences.

Plaxton said District 6 RCMP has one Drug Recognition Expert, and also
has some officers trained in road-side tests for determining whether
an individual has drugs in their system.

"All of our members aren't trained for that yet. So sometimes it's a
training issue and they just miss some of the things that they may
pick up on were they trained."

The man apparently told the officer he was told he should have been OK
to drive after a certain amount of time. The officer replied by
telling him to ensure he was able to before letting him leave.

"But having said that, the officer is fairly junior and wasn't trained
in the drug recognition. And so if there were any other physical
symptoms "| he wouldn't have picked up on it, whereas someone that was
trained in that would have," he explained.

"We always look back on these things with 20-20 vision, right, and say
'we could have done this, we could have done that.' But under the
circumstances, when I found out about what had happened "| I could see
where he maybe made the decision "| based on what he knew at the time."

Plaxton stressed he's not defending the decision, "I'm just saying
based on the information he had at the time, he made a decision that
turned out might not have been the right one.

"It doesn't necessarily make everything right, but it's an explanation
to why it happened the way it happened."

The RCMP has made strides to provide officers with the ability to
recognize a driver who may be behind the wheel while impaired by
drugs, Plaxton said, with training being conducted every year, and
higher numbers of officers trained.

However, with so many new members, he said there is a lot of training
to do.

Plaxton recalled years before when he wondered about what RCMP would
have to do as drivers began driving while under the influence of drugs.

At the time, RCMP had no means to prove it other than a blood
test.

"It's only last year that we have actually the ability to demand the
drug screening to prove that somebody had drugs in their system," he
said.

"There's a whole learning curve here, the same as back when we first
started bringing people in for the breathalyzer. There's a whole
learning curve 'till we get to the point it's going to be an everyday
occurrence "| There's a learning curve here for everybody involved and
we're not at the stage yet where every Mountie or every policeman is
trained to pick up on all the signs of symptoms."