POTHEADS LIKE TO TOKE AND DRIVE

Many Believe It's Okay And Few Can Counter The Claim

But Study Sees More Collisions Among Smoking Teenagers

It's usually near Belleville - with traffic thinning and the daunting
prospect of staring at two laser-straight lanes of blacktop for
another four hours - that Tobias lights the first of two joints he'll
smoke while driving to Montreal.

Motorists have different ways of coping with the excruciatingly dull
drive on the 401 outside Toronto. Some listen to music or audio
books, some take advantage of airtime deals and call friends.

For others, smoking pot is an appealing solution - even while at the
controls of two tonnes of hurtling steel and glass.

Anything to make the time and distance unreel more swiftly.

"I don't think it's reckless behaviour if you smoke a joint and
drive," says Tobias (not his real name), a communications consultant
who counts some of Canada's best-known companies among his clients.

"I actively choose to improve my driving by smoking," he says,
pointing out that he sets the cruise control at 118 km/h and
carefully checks his blind spot "at least three times" before
negotiating a lane change.

Tobias believes he's a worse driver when he's not stoned on the 401,
tending to speed in excess of 125 km/h and drive more aggressively.

"When I'm high and driving, I'm very conscious of that fact, so I'm cautious."

If he's nonchalant about the practice, it's because Tobias believes
there's not much indignation among Canadians regarding smoking dope
and driving. But the issue got a boost in November when the
Ottawa-based Canadian Public Health Association aimed a public
awareness campaign at students.

Lee Bishop, Toronto Police Service RIDE co-ordinator, sees the issue
at street level.

"Drug use and driving is simply not on the public's radar screen,"
notes Bishop, a 20-year veteran of the force. There's an absence of
spectacular crashes that incriminate pot use, so people and
politicians aren't clamouring for greater enforcement.

Without a body count to point to, the practice is seemingly gaining acceptance.

"Youth are telling us they believe they can get away with toking and
driving," complains Bishop. "They know we don't have a roadside test for it."

While it's true there's no technology equivalent to a Breathalyzer
for pot, police can still check for impairment the old-fashioned way.

Motorists stopped during the year-round RIDE program may face a
standardized field sobriety test, which involves examining the
driver's co-ordination and eye movement.

If the RIDE officer suspects impairment due to drugs rather than
alcohol, a police officer specially trained in drug recognition will
be dispatched to test the suspect further at the roadside.

Should the trained officer see evidence of impairment, the driver can
be charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of
drugs and is brought into the station for formal testing, which
usually involves a blood sample.

However, Bishop says, the police have no authority to demand a blood
test, so the field evidence doesn't hold up well in court. "The
courts have shown us that drug impairment is hard to prove."

That's because there's no legal determination of what level of THC -
tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana -
constitutes "impairment," says Bishop.

For alcohol, that figure is 0.08 per cent blood alcohol concentration
- - a legal threshold, Bishop points out, that took years for the
courts to accept.

Then there's the problem of resources. At present, Toronto has only
about a half-dozen officers trained as drug recognition experts out
of 265 who regularly work the spot checks.

"Not enough training has been done as yet. It's a money issue," says
Bishop. "The city has determined it has other enforcement priorities
right now."

Even if the driver was to surrender a sample that revealed THC in the
blood, that's not sufficient evidence to suggest the charged motorist
was impaired at the time of the spot check, says Kirk Tousaw, general
counsel to the British Columbia Marijuana Party. That's because THC
can remain in the blood and fat tissue to up to 30 days after using
pot, even though the high wears off after an hour or two.

"Testing of bodily fluids does not provide evidence of when the drugs
were used," Tousaw wrote on behalf of the B.C. Civil Liberties
Association in a submission to the B.C. government on the question of
roadside drug testing.

Campaign makes students think with image of airline pilots about to smoke up

Drug testing is also susceptible to error. Some over-the-counter
anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen can generate false
positives for cannabis. More than 100 prescription drugs can also
test positive for pot, Tousaw wrote.

The Canadian Public Health Association's fall campaign was anchored
by a poster - 55,000 of which were mailed to high schools nationwide
- - showing two pilots sharing a joint prior to takeoff.

In focus-group testing, the image compelled teens of driving age to
discuss the responsibilities that pilots, and drivers, have for the
safety of their passengers, says Christiane Poulin, professor and
Canada Research Chair in Population Health and Addictions at
Dalhousie University, as well as a CPHA volunteer.

The campaign's goal is to increase awareness among youth aged 14 to
18 of the risks of cannabis-impaired driving. Canadian youth have one
of the highest rates of cannabis use in the world.

"Many young Canadians do not believe cannabis impairs their driving
ability," Poulin says.

Clinical evidence shows that smoking pot can produce unwelcome
effects behind the wheel, including a shorter attention span, an
altered perception of time and distances, and slower reaction times
that impair the driver's ability to respond to sudden events in traffic.

Add these to the inexperience and risk-taking behaviours young
drivers sometimes demonstrate and it can make for a lethal combination.

Still, Tousaw has some reservations about the campaign.

"The CPHA seems to be operating on the premise that because a lot of
young people use cannabis, then this automatically means a lot of
people are mixing cannabis and driving," he says.

"Lots of people have been smoking marijuana for the past 30 years.
Where are the bodies? You kind of want to see some statistics," he
says of the campaign website ( http://www.potanddriving.cpha.ca ).

Indeed, an online literature search reveals inconclusive findings
regarding pot as an impediment to safe driving.

"Surprisingly, there seems to be little evidence that drivers who
have used cannabis on its own are more likely to cause crashes than
drug-free drivers," writes the Canada Safety Council (
http://www.safety-council.org ).

"The results to date of crash culpability studies have failed to
demonstrate that drivers with cannabinoids in the blood are
significantly more likely than drug-free drivers to be culpable in
road crashes," noted Great Britain's department of transport in 2000.

Even Bishop concedes the jury is still out on the risks of pot use by drivers.

"I attended a drug conference a few months ago and I can tell you
that the science is still hotly disputed," she says. Poulin admits
that epidemiological research has typically focused on subcategories,
specifically mortalities, in which drug use could not be pinpointed accurately.

That's why she's excited by a recent study she was involved in that
demonstrates a link between self-reported "cannabis-driving" and
vehicle collisions among 6,087 senior high school students in
Atlantic Canada. For the purposes of the study, cannabis-driving is
defined as operating a vehicle within one hour of smoking a joint.

"Students who did cannabis-driving had a 1.8-fold increased risk of a
motor vehicle collision compared with students who did not engage in
cannabis-driving," she notes.

In addition, the proportion of students driving under the influence
of cannabis (15.1 per cent) was greater than the proportion of
students admitting they have driven drunk (11.7 per cent), despite
the higher prevalence of alcohol consumption relative to cannabis use.

The numbers support the notion that youth are driving stoned in the
belief it is tolerated, and because the practice hasn't been
demonized to the same extent as drunk driving.

For the CPHA, the important thing is to get youth and their parents
talking about a little-known public health issue. Youth are receptive
to the message of safe marijuana use, says Poulin.

The first Canadian study to examine harm-reduction drug education in
schools, conducted in Nova Scotia, has found the strategy to be
effective in senior high schools.

"Harm-reduction drug education aims to minimize the negative
consequences of substance use," says Poulin. "It simply says, 'if you
use, be smart about it and protect yourself from harm.'"

"It's not about zero tolerance; it's not a moralistic campaign," says
Elinor Wilson, CEO of the CPHA, talking about her association's
pot-smoking pilots.

"We're not telling people to not smoke pot - although abstinence is
certainly one strategy. What we are saying is if you're going to
smoke pot, please don't drive."