DRUGGED DRIVERS TARGETED

Urine And Blood Samples Possible

Criminal Code Changes Proposed

OTTAWA - Drivers suspected of being high on over-the-counter,
prescription or illegal drugs could be forced to give police saliva,
urine or blood samples on demand under proposed changes to the
Criminal Code introduced yesterday.

Opposition critics and the lobby group Mothers Against Drunk Driving
(MADD) welcomed the "drug-impaired driving" bill as a first step
toward addressing a gap in the Liberal plan to decriminalize the
possession of small amounts of pot.

But they said Ottawa should put more money into the training of police
officers across the country in order to enforce the law.

Last spring, the Chretien government put $910,000 over five years
towards training Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) officers.

There are 73 certified DRE officers in Canada, and another 38 are in
the process of being certified.

The RCMP has also re-allocated $4.1 million to get a national DRE
program under way, but Justice Minister Irwin Cotler made it clear
there is no new money attached to yesterday's announced bill.

"I would trust that the provinces will be able to come up with the
resources for this," Cotler told reporters.

Although it is a criminal offence to drive while impaired on drugs or
alcohol - with penalties running to life imprisonment in the case
where the offence causes a death - the police do not now have the same
authority to test for drug impairment and elicit evidence for a
prosecution, as they have now for alcohol-related driving offences,
said Cotler.

Under the bill, a police officer could, on reasonable suspicion that a
driver is drug-impaired, require a roadside physical sobriety test to
measure a person's ability to divide his attention, or cope with
several tasks at once.

If a driver fails that test, the officer could demand more extensive
testing at the police station by an officer who is specially trained
in "drug recognition."

A DRE officer could then demand the sample of a bodily fluid for
testing. Failure to provide a sample on demand would be a criminal
offence, punishable by the same penalty as refusing an alcohol breath
test: a minimum $600 fine for the first offence. For more serious
offences, the maximum penalty is up to five years in jail.

Right now, only three provinces, Quebec, British Columbia and
Manitoba, use DRE testing, and only where drivers voluntarily
participate.

Drivers could not be compelled to comply.

The Canadian Bar Association raised concerns with the government that
"one-size-fits-all" testing for drug impairment is not an objective
test and gives police too much power.

Cotler's bill acknowledges there is no scientific consensus on how
much drug concentration causes impairment, and notes that traces of
some drugs, like pot, can remain in the body for days or weeks.

But yesterday, Cotler said he believes that, as with drunk driving
laws, the courts will find this is justified under Section 1 of the
Charter as a "reasonable limit" on the right to be free from
unreasonable search and seizure.

He claimed a "disproportionate number of fatalities occur as a result
of drug impaired driving," but the only study cited by the government
is one by the Quebec auto insurance agency that said more than 30 per
cent of fatal accidents in the province involved drugs or a
combination of drugs and alcohol.

Wanda Kristensen, MADD's programs director, said the group is "really
pleased the government finally listened" to its concerns, especially
given the plan to loosen marijuana sentencing laws which MADD says
will likely increase use.

She stressed the need for bigger police training budgets, saying "it's
in the millions of dollars, and $1 million probably won't do it."

She added that MADD is consulting with police associations to assess
how much money is needed for training.

Conservative MP Peter MacKay (Pictou-Antigonish-Guysborough), one of
the party's justice critics and a former prosecutor, agreed.

"It's fine to try to bolster the efforts to combat impaired driving by
drug, but there has to be increased training, there has to be
increased resources," he said.