XLE420
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Here's what cops want you to remember: James McIlwrick was high on marijuana and prescription drugs the morning he slammed a pickup truck into another vehicle two years ago, killing Tammy Engelking and Henry Yao.
Here's what they'd rather you forget: your chances of being caught driving under the influence of pot are slim to none.
Unless you get into a serious accident - or confess to a police officer in a moment of stoned candour - you're probably going to get away with it.
And there are probably a lot more stoned drivers on the highways than anyone cares to admit. McIlwrick's case was an odd one: having caused the crash outside Sherwood Park that killed Engelking and Yao, he freely admitted to emergency medical staff and police at the scene he'd smoked a joint earlier in the day.
He also copped to consuming the drugs Ativan, Zyprexia and Zithromax, which contributed to his drowsy state.
"It's a rare case," said Crown prosecutor Greg Marchant. "I've been doing this work for five years, and I can only remember one drug-impairment case involving (marijuana)."
Can you test a driver for marijuana impairment? Not without his permission - or a court order. Because alcohol distributes evenly throughout the body, a breath test actually gives a very near estimate of how much booze made it to the brain.
Police officers can also force you to take a roadside breath test on suspicion, or as part of a random checkstop.
Cannabis is complicated. The active ingredient in weed, for instance, collects in fatty tissues. Breath samples are useless. Even blood samples aren't completely reliable - and they're not much good from a legal point of view.
"Police have no legal right to compel a blood test, even if they suspect impairment," said local criminal lawyer Robert Shaigec. "A blood sample is considered intrusive under the law. A breath sample isn't."
Let's settle something right now: marijuana does impair your ability to drive safely. I know I'm going to get a lot of e-mails from lifetime weed smokers claiming the stuff makes them better drivers.
Not true. Wise up.
"It impairs visual function, your ability to follow moving objects," said Doug Beirness, senior research associate with the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.
"Drivers under the influence of marijuana tend to show slower reaction times, an inability to respond adequately to unexpected events. They're easily startled, and they have trouble deciding what to do in an emergency situation."
Marijuana has one effect it doesn't share with alcohol: people high on weed tend to be very aware of their impaired state. So while drunks drive recklessly, a driver high on cannabis will more often drive slightly below the speed limit and leave larger gaps between his car and other traffic.
But he's still impaired - when something goes wrong, studies show the stoned driver is at a higher risk of being responsible for a collision. His diminished reflexes make him an unsafe driver, even if he's driving under the posted limit. And when cannabis is combined with booze, the likelihood of an accident increases again.
But because a lot of people think driving stoned is safe, a lot of people are doing it. A recent study found roughly 2% of Ontarians reported driving under the influence of cannabis in the previous year. Among regular users, that percentage jumped to 23%.
There's no legal limit for cannabis impairment in the Criminal Code, because there's no practical way to test for it. A British company has a patent on a device that tests saliva for marijuana's active ingredient, and Australian cops are using it. But it's not cleared for Canadian courts.
In the meantime, police have something called the Drug Recognition Expertise protocol. Crafted by the RCMP, its a checklist of signs and symptoms used by cops to detect impairment by all sorts of drugs, weed included. There are five DRE-trained officers in Alberta now, and another 24 should be trained by the end of November.
"But again, we can't compel a driver to submit to a DRE test," said RCMP Cpl. Evan Graham, national DRE co-ordinator. "There was a bill before Parliament that would have given us that power, but it died with the election."
"Basically, police are left with their own observations as evidence. Was the driver slurring his speech, was he weaving in the lane?" said Beirness.
"But in the absence of medical evidence of impairment, that's probably not going to be enough for a conviction. Any lawyer could get the charge tossed in about two minutes."
Newshawk: SX420 - 420 Magazine
Source: Edmonton Sun
Author: Doug Beazley,
Copyright: 2006, Canoe Inc.
Contact: dbeazley@edmsun.com
Website: edmontonsun.com
Here's what they'd rather you forget: your chances of being caught driving under the influence of pot are slim to none.
Unless you get into a serious accident - or confess to a police officer in a moment of stoned candour - you're probably going to get away with it.
And there are probably a lot more stoned drivers on the highways than anyone cares to admit. McIlwrick's case was an odd one: having caused the crash outside Sherwood Park that killed Engelking and Yao, he freely admitted to emergency medical staff and police at the scene he'd smoked a joint earlier in the day.
He also copped to consuming the drugs Ativan, Zyprexia and Zithromax, which contributed to his drowsy state.
"It's a rare case," said Crown prosecutor Greg Marchant. "I've been doing this work for five years, and I can only remember one drug-impairment case involving (marijuana)."
Can you test a driver for marijuana impairment? Not without his permission - or a court order. Because alcohol distributes evenly throughout the body, a breath test actually gives a very near estimate of how much booze made it to the brain.
Police officers can also force you to take a roadside breath test on suspicion, or as part of a random checkstop.
Cannabis is complicated. The active ingredient in weed, for instance, collects in fatty tissues. Breath samples are useless. Even blood samples aren't completely reliable - and they're not much good from a legal point of view.
"Police have no legal right to compel a blood test, even if they suspect impairment," said local criminal lawyer Robert Shaigec. "A blood sample is considered intrusive under the law. A breath sample isn't."
Let's settle something right now: marijuana does impair your ability to drive safely. I know I'm going to get a lot of e-mails from lifetime weed smokers claiming the stuff makes them better drivers.
Not true. Wise up.
"It impairs visual function, your ability to follow moving objects," said Doug Beirness, senior research associate with the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.
"Drivers under the influence of marijuana tend to show slower reaction times, an inability to respond adequately to unexpected events. They're easily startled, and they have trouble deciding what to do in an emergency situation."
Marijuana has one effect it doesn't share with alcohol: people high on weed tend to be very aware of their impaired state. So while drunks drive recklessly, a driver high on cannabis will more often drive slightly below the speed limit and leave larger gaps between his car and other traffic.
But he's still impaired - when something goes wrong, studies show the stoned driver is at a higher risk of being responsible for a collision. His diminished reflexes make him an unsafe driver, even if he's driving under the posted limit. And when cannabis is combined with booze, the likelihood of an accident increases again.
But because a lot of people think driving stoned is safe, a lot of people are doing it. A recent study found roughly 2% of Ontarians reported driving under the influence of cannabis in the previous year. Among regular users, that percentage jumped to 23%.
There's no legal limit for cannabis impairment in the Criminal Code, because there's no practical way to test for it. A British company has a patent on a device that tests saliva for marijuana's active ingredient, and Australian cops are using it. But it's not cleared for Canadian courts.
In the meantime, police have something called the Drug Recognition Expertise protocol. Crafted by the RCMP, its a checklist of signs and symptoms used by cops to detect impairment by all sorts of drugs, weed included. There are five DRE-trained officers in Alberta now, and another 24 should be trained by the end of November.
"But again, we can't compel a driver to submit to a DRE test," said RCMP Cpl. Evan Graham, national DRE co-ordinator. "There was a bill before Parliament that would have given us that power, but it died with the election."
"Basically, police are left with their own observations as evidence. Was the driver slurring his speech, was he weaving in the lane?" said Beirness.
"But in the absence of medical evidence of impairment, that's probably not going to be enough for a conviction. Any lawyer could get the charge tossed in about two minutes."
Newshawk: SX420 - 420 Magazine
Source: Edmonton Sun
Author: Doug Beazley,
Copyright: 2006, Canoe Inc.
Contact: dbeazley@edmsun.com
Website: edmontonsun.com
