By Tahreem Fatima [1]
BELLEVILLE – Holiday revellers will see an increase in traffic stops as police have launched RIDE [2] checks.
This will be the first holiday season after the legalization of cannabis and the OPP are urging people to drive sober and safely or make other plans for a safe ride this holiday season.
“No amount of alcohol or other drugs in your system is safe when driving,” Quinte West OPP Constable Derrick Osmond said in an email to QNet News.
Const. Osmond said that after the legalization of cannabis in Canada there have been talks in the department about purchasing a device called The Dräger DrugTest 5000.
The Dräger DrugTest 5000 can test saliva for cocaine and THC, the main psychoactive agent in cannabis. The drug-testing equipment received approval from the federal justice department in August.
He said, for now, if a patrol officer stops a vehicle they believe is being operated by an drug-impaired driver he or she can, if necessary, request the assistance of an officer who is trained in Standard Field Sobriety Testing (SFST). SFST testing determines whether or not someone is impaired.
The officers would then place the driver under arrest for impaired driving and request the assistance of a Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) Officer who will also evaluate the driver. If the DRE officer determines that his findings are positive for drug impairment, the officer would then charge the driver with being impaired by the drug.
Const. Osmond said that police have been making impaired by drug arrests for many years. Cannabis users will be charged the same way as alcohol-impaired drivers are.
He said that the message police want to get out to drivers for the holidays and every day of the year is that no amount of alcohol or any other drug in your system is okay. If you plan on drinking or consuming drugs, do not drive. Instead, arrange for a designated driver, take a taxi or public transit, or come up with another plan.
He said that according to statistics impaired driving is the leading cause of criminal death in Canada and it most definitely is preventable.
Kimberly Johnston, a community safety officer with Northumberland OPP said in an email, “the OPP is committed to ensuring that all officers receive the training they need to enforce the new federal and provincial cannabis and drug-impaired driving legislation of cannabis.”
She said that road safety is OPP’S priority and officers are trained in Standardized Field Sobriety Testing and as Drug Recognition Experts to give them the skills and authority needed to detect and evaluate drug-impaired drivers.
Staff Sgt. Greg MacLellan of Quinte West OPP says in an OPP video posted to Twitter Thursday that “the message has to be clear: you cannot drink and drive. You cannot be impaired by drugs … No amount of alcohol, no amount of cannabis is safe” for driving.
“We will find you. We will be out there,” MacLellan says in the video.
Police are encouraging people who know they will be drinking or using cannabis to plan ahead and consider a taxi or public transit or to use programs like Operation Red Nose [3] to get home.
#OPP [4] detachments in the Quinte area, @BLVLPolice [5] and the @HPEPublicHealth [6] launched the #FestiveRide [7] program today near Belleville. SSgt Greg MacLellan. #ImpairedIsImpaired [8] ^bd pic.twitter.com/FJT9KWjI78 [9]
— OPP East Region (@OPP_ER) November 29, 2018 [10]