Codiac RCMP Superintendent Tom Critchlow says they will be ready to catch drug impaired drivers come legalization of recreational cannabis July 1st.
They are expanding the number of officers with Standard Field Sobriety Test training, Critchlow says, and they will be looking for signs of drug impairment, just like they do with alcohol.
“The way the person was driving, their behaviour and physiological signs, odour of, perhaps, marijuana, that type of thing,” says Critchlow. “And then they can bring them forward to the Drug Recognition Expert, who would be like the Breath Technician.”
He says for the Drug Recognition Expert training, members would have to be sent to the United States, and that training includes doing “multiple testing on subjects that are impaired by drugs, looking for physical signs that they can detect, and become subject matter experts, and being able to testify in court relating to their findings.”
“This is not something that is brand new, the legislation is new, but people have been, you know, driving under the influence of drugs for a long time, and we’ve had to respond to that,” says Critchlow.
Critchlow says that initial expert training is currently being funded by the federal and provincial governments, but he expects down the road municipalities may be responsible for at least some part of that cost.
