Part two of a series on how the tragic death of young girl changed the culture of drinking and driving in B.C.
Impaired driving deaths have been cut in half over the past decade in B.C.
The drastic drop follows the introduction of harsh new rules in 2010, just a few hundred metres from her home in Delta in May 2008.
A police officer is now able to immediately ban a drunk driver from getting behind the wheel for 90 days, as well as hand them a $500 fine. Before, police could only stop someone with a 24-hour ban.
A squad of officers, , has spent the past 10 years cracking down on drunk driving, bringing the 102 related deaths in 2008 down to 53 in 2016 (the latest year that numbers are available).
| Officers join Alexa's Team at an annual ceremoney. (Tracy Holmes/Peace Arch B次元官网网址) |
Now, with , officers who are part of AlexaB次元官网网址檚 Team are faced with a new set of challenges: How to investigate, charge and convict someone for drug-impaired driving.
Chief among the challenges is how to determine impairment, especially in a way that will hold up in court.
Sgt. Pat Davies leans forward onto a boardroom table in the Langley office of the provinceB次元官网网址檚 traffic division. He and the other 2,400 members of AlexaB次元官网网址檚 Team worry about how many lives could be lost before society understands how deadly drug-impaired driving is.
B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e basically where we were societally, in the 1940s or the 1950s, with regards to liquor, now with regard to drugs,B次元官网网址� says Davies.
B次元官网网址淭hereB次元官网网址檚 no unanimity in the medical community in terms of what constitutes impairment and we donB次元官网网址檛 have any reliable instruments that will tell us B次元官网网址楾his person is impaired.B次元官网网址橞次元官网网址�
B.C. has proposed a 90-day driving ban for anyone caught high while driving. But there is currently that police can use to conduct a roadside test. The federal marijuana legalization bill, though, would give police the power to demand blood and saliva samples.
Several companies, including Vancouver-based Cannabix Technologies, are in the process of developing one, but neither the finished product, nor approval for Ottawa, will come in time for legalization this summer.
B次元官网网址淚t takes years to develop,B次元官网网址� Davies says. B次元官网网址淚t has to go through testing and once a particular instrument is chosen, it has to be put into legislation and then down the road weB次元官网网址檝e got to arrange trainingB次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 an impossible calendar.B次元官网网址�
| Police view immediate 90-day administrative roadside prohibitions as key to keeping impaired drivers off the road. (Katya Slepian/Black Press Media) |
Instead, police will have to use physical signs to try to determine if a driver is high. But there isnB次元官网网址檛 a foolproof method to do that.
B次元官网网址淪o few police officers are trained as drug recognition experts to do field sobriety testing, to do drug recognition testing, that the capacity to deal with hit isnB次元官网网址檛 there,B次元官网网址� says retired RCMP Insp. Ted Emanuels, who helped launch AlexaB次元官网网址檚 Team.
Despite calls for a delay from senators, Indigenous leaders and others, the Trudeau government has in its plan to legalize recreational marijuana by the summer.
Emanuels said U.S. states have defined limits for the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as THC, the high-inducing chemical in marijuana, in a driverB次元官网网址檚 blood system.
In Colorado, where pot has been legal since 2012, the limit is five nanograms of THC.
State law allows police there to arrest anyone based on B次元官网网址渙bserved impairment,B次元官网网址� no matter the level of THC in their blood. The state does not have any breathalyzer-style technology to test for THC, instead relying on blood tests.
West Vancouver Police Sgt. Brock Harrington, who is on AlexaB次元官网网址檚 Team, believes bringing in, and enforcing, a similar limit in B.C. would have challenges.
B次元官网网址淐an I be the side of the road and ask for somebodyB次元官网网址檚 urine? How do you physically get the evidence?B次元官网网址� Harrington says.
Testing blood or urine is currently the only way to test for THC, and could violate privacy laws.
B次元官网网址淚 donB次元官网网址檛 think the public understands how impairing marijuana is. ItB次元官网网址檚 not your alcoholic stumbling drunk obnoxious,B次元官网网址� Emanuels says.
B次元官网网址淎lexa brought the awareness to the policing community over alcohol-impaired driving. It was the tipping point. We knew what we had [in that] and it allowed us to move forward and be successful.B次元官网网址�
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