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Police call it the ‘potalyser’
By Hempology | May 26, 2003
From the Regina Leader-Post, May 26, 2003
By Erin Conway-Smith
OTTAWA — Ontario traffic police frustrated by drivers they say are dangerously impaired by marijuana are looking into a pot-equivalent of the breathalyser, a roadside test dubbed the “potalyser.”
The fledgling initiative could break new ground in efforts by Canadian police to grapple with the thorny issue of drugged driving.
Using a small white device that resembles a lollipop, police officers could easily find out what drugs a person had ingested before driving, said Sgt. Al Reid of Ontario Provincial Police headquarters in Orillia.
“You’d have the driver swab around the inside of his mouth and then jam it into the receptacle with fluid in it,” he explained. “In two minutes, you’d have an indication.
“I would envision the kit being used the same way as the approved screening device for alcohol.”
Reid obtained a trial version of a kit made by Draeger, the company that produces the breathalyser used by provincial police, after attending an international conference on traffic safety last year. “I’ve got to know what’s out there.”
Traffic cops believe drivers are increasingly smoking marijuana and getting behind the wheel, he said. While drugged driving is not a new problem, the issue has garnered attention recently as the federal government considers liberalizing marijuana laws by dropping criminal penalties for possession of a small amount of cannabis.
Reid said police are frustrated because they have no way to determine how much a driver has smoked or whether they are impaired.
For example, a driver pulled over by a spot-check program intended to catch drunk drivers might blow zero in the breathalyser, but reek of marijuana. That isn’t enough to arrest them — physical evidence is necessary.
But drivers shouldn’t expect to take a roadside drug test any time soon. Legislative changes, similar to laws requiring people impaired by alcohol to give a breath sample, are needed to allow officers to demand samples for drug evaluations.
Impaired driving charges don’t usually stick in court now because it is difficult to prove a person’s driving was affected by what they smoked.
In January, Rick Reimer — a former Ottawa lawyer who is legally permitted to smoke pot because of his multiple sclerosis — was acquitted on charges of impaired driving, even though he was smoking a joint when police pulled him over. The judge said there wasn’t enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Reimer was impaired.
Ronald Pon, an RCMP toxicologist at the Vancouver forensic lab, said unlike drunk driving, in which blood alcohol level and driving ability are directly linked, there hasn’t been enough research to link the quantity of a drug with impairment.
Research is difficult to do because people have different tolerances to drugs — unlike with alcohol, where everyone is impaired at a certain level — and is further complicated if a person has taken more than one drug.
Pon said roadside drug tests aren’t specific enough. A blood sample would need to be drawn and analysed in the lab to confirm results.
“They aren’t quantitative — they don’t measure the actual concentration. You’re either positive or you’re not.”
With THC, the active component in marijuana is stored in body fat and trace amounts can appear in urine and blood samples, he said. “If you have a positive THC in your urine, it doesn’t mean it’s active in your system.”
Unlike provincial police in Ontario, the RCMP are not currently looking into roadside testing devices and is, instead, expanding a program that enables police officers to identify impaired drivers by the physiological effects of drugs.
Nineteen police officers from across Canada graduated in January from the drug recognition expert program, which teaches them to identify the signs and symptoms of drug use.
The program was developed in California in the 1970s and until now British Columbia is the only province to operate the program. Drug recognition experts there can issue 24-hour licence suspensions to drug-impaired drivers. They can also testify in court as expert witnesses in impaired driving cases.
However, the same legal roadblock exists for the drug recognition expert program as it does for any roadside test. There is no legal requirement for drivers to take the test or give a sample of blood or urine to confirm the results.
Eugene Oscapella, an Ottawa lawyer and a founder of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, says drivers who smoke marijuana aren’t necessarily dangerous, citing studies showing they tend to overcompensate by driving more carefully.
A report released in September by a Senate special committee concluded that marijuana has little effect on driving, and may even lead to a more cautious style behind the wheel. Only when combined with alcohol is the drug thought to make driving dangerous.
Oscapella thinks the notion of the hazardous motorist is dragged up by opponents of marijuana decriminalization who want to alarm the public.
“When we talk about reforming the laws, this is one of the bogeymen they bring out.”
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