The NWT has some of the highest rates of drinking and driving in Canada.
In 2016, the territory reported more than 1,400 incidents per 100,000 people compared to the national average of 262 incidents per 100,000 people, according to Statistics Canada.It's all about to get a bit more trickier after cannabis becomes legal on July 1. It's well-documented that consuming alcohol and cannabis together increases impairment. Presumably, legal marijuana will mean more people smoking it – or at at least, less inhibited toward smoking it – and combining it with alcohol.
To prepare for this eventually, the territorial government is proposing what will become some of the strictest anti-impaired driving laws in the country.
Last week, the GNWT introduced the Cannabis Legalization and Regulation Implementation Act, which addresses areas the GNWT has authority over surrounding the federal legalization of recreational pot. According to the government, those include: minimum age, possession limits, public smoking, the sale and distribution of recreational cannabis, and impaired driving.
It's the latter that has received less attention – as opposed to where people can buy their baggies or where they can have a toke outdoors. But it's the proposed crackdown on impaired driving that should be very, very sobering.
If you are younger than 22 and are found behind the wheel with any amount of booze or drugs in your system – or if you refuse to provide a breath sample – your driver’s licence will be suspended for 30 days. The same suspension will apply to novice drivers and those operating a commercial vehicle.
Testing for booze is well established. Roadside testing for drugs, on the other hand, is still in its infancy.
In fact, just last year Yellowknife RCMP was one of seven police forces across Canada that participated in a pilot project to test an oral fluid drug screening device that screens for drugs such as THC (the active ingredient in marijuana), cocaine, opioids and amphetamines.
The federal government declared the pilot program a success even though a report by Public Safety Canada acknowledges the devices malfunctioned seven per cent of the time, which is to say, far too often. Moreover, the RCMP itself acknowledges these devices do not accurately detect impairment – only the presence of drugs in the system.
The device's real value is to help confirm suspected drug impairment, and then followed up by a more comprehensive blood test. Nonetheless, one envisions the opening created for a skilled defence lawyer with a client charged under such circumstances.
And one wonders, if a quarter of Canadians under 25 have used cannabis in the past year, as reported by Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, and it's possible that this cannabis use may show up on a roadside test even though the driver may not be impaired at the time, how draconian could this new law be?
Everything happening to date appears very rushed as governments and police scramble to prepare for impending legalization.
It makes sense, considering the prevalence of cannabis use among young people and the increased likelihood of impairment when combined with alcohol, to have a zero per cent alcohol limit on young and new drivers. It also makes sense to impose heavier penalties, such as a 30-day suspension on novice drivers who have up to .05 blood-alcohol content.
But to put a quarter of all drivers under 22 at risk of losing their drivers' licences, even if only trace amounts of cannabis show up in their systems, seems ill-considered. Studies have shown THC – the active chemical in cannabis – can remain in the system days, even weeks, after consumption.
The great irony of legalizing weed could be the unforeseen consequences that come with new legislation drafted to regulate its use and when.