Fears of massive spikes in the number of drugged drivers under a legal cannabis regime have so far failed to materialize with marijuana now being legal in B.C.
Acumen Law’s Paul Doroshenko says despite some politicians sounding the alarm the news of no big spike in drugged drivers does not come as a surprise.
“We never expected a flood of cases because in other jurisdictions where they legalized cannabis they have not had a flood of impaired drivers. The other thing is it is actually surprisingly hard to impair yourself with cannabis. You have got to be pretty high to be impaired in your ability to drive. And it is really hard for the police to detect it.”
Doroshenko says there has been a change made by the province to prevent the B.C. Supreme Court from being flooded with challenges from accused drugged drivers.
“The B.C. Government quietly changed the laws. Before when you were issued a 24 hour driving prohibition for cannabis your only remedy was to appeal the police officer’s decision to issue it to the B.C. Supreme Court. Now that has changed. They have introduced a review provision before the superintendent of motor vehicles.”
He says the much maligned Draeger Drug Test 5000 is being used by some police forces and he believes a legal test case will head to court but likely not in this province.
