CATCHING DRUG-IMPAIRED DRIVERS HAMPERED BY LACK OF RESOURCES

Two years after Ottawa passed a controversial law that gave police new
powers to go after drugged-up drivers, opinion is divided over how
much of a difference the law has made and whether those police powers
can hold up in court.

Under the law, which came into effect in July 2008, an officer who
suspects a driver may be impaired by drugs can demand that the driver
perform a test of their physical co-ordination. If the driver fails
that test, the officer can compel the driver to go to the police
station for a lengthier evaluation by a drugrecognition expert.

At the end of that evaluation, the expert can order the driver to
submit a blood, urine or saliva sample -- in much the same way police
can compel someone suspected of being too boozy to drive to submit a
breath sample. Refusal to comply can result in a $1,000 fine.

"It's simply levelled the playing field -- to hold them accountable as
we do alcohol-impaired drivers," said Ian Brooks, an acting sergeant
with the Edmonton police.

But while drug impaired-driving arrests last year rose to 1,394 from
441 the year before, they still accounted for only a sliver of the
88,630 total impaired-driving arrests, Statistics Canada data show.

Part of the problem, critics say, is that police agencies have been
too slow to train officers to become drugrecognition experts. There
are now just more than 600 nationwide, with wide variations among
Canada's major police forces.

Police in Edmonton and Winnipeg each have 21 drug-recognition experts;
Ottawa police have 16; Toronto police have 14; Vancouver police have
10; and Montreal police have two.

Some agencies admit they struggle to have even one expert available
per shift. "It's a joke," said Toronto criminal lawyer Jonathan
Rosenthal. "They come out with guns blazing -- 'we're coming out hard
on crime' -- but if you don't put resources into the system, it's
meaningless."

RCMP Sgt. Evan Graham, national co-ordinator of the drug-recognition
expert program, acknowledged that the training of officers is a
"little behind" where he'd hoped to be at this point, but he said he
hopes to add another 200 to 300 experts per year over the next few
years.

Training takes two weeks to complete, plus there's another week of
field certification, he added.

"It's not overnight."

And while authorities say most drug-impaired driving arrests result in
guilty pleas, the few cases that have gone to trial have, in at least
a couple of instances, resulted in acquittals -- raising questions,
defence lawyers say, about the reliability of the testing.