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Cannabis saliva testing nears approval for police

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Saliva drug tests are pending approval, after a ministerial order from Canada's attorney general. photo courtesy of Arkadiusz Zarzecki

Roadside saliva testing devices that detect cannabis could be in the hands of NWT RCMP officers by next month but a study shows cold weather lowers the devices effectiveness and drives up drug positive results.

Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould signalled her approval of the German-manufactured device late last month.

The approval comes as Canada prepares for the legalization of cannabis Oct. 17.

Saliva drug tests are pending approval, after a ministerial order from Canada's attorney general. photo courtesy of Arkadiusz Zarzecki

The Draeger DrugTest 5000 detects the presence of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis but cannot reliably measure a driver's level of impairment the same way a blood-alcohol test indicates alcohol impairment, said Doug Beirness, senior research associate and driving impairment expert for the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse in an interview with News/North.

“I don't think we should hang our hat on the screeners,” said Beirness. “It's one more thing the police have available to them to test a possible criminal offence but we shouldn't rely on it solely,” he said.

Police have roadside standardized tests and drug recognition experts who are able to assess a driver's impairment, he said.

The number of these experts in the territory fluctuate with transfer of officers, retirements or officers who do not re-certify for various reasons, stated RCMP spokesperson Marie York-Condon in an e-mail.

The territory's RCMP sends officers for training “at every opportunity” and will continue to do so, she wrote.

Public Safety Canada announced $81 million in law enforcement training to teach RCMP to identify impaired drivers through the drug recognition expert evaluations.

Nationally, the RCMP are creating an online training module with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and Canadian Police Knowledge Network to give access to this training to all Canadian law enforcement, she said.

The mandatory training program will be used by NWT Mounties to ensure officers can detect drug-impaired driving, said York-Condon.

That includes a standardized test to determine whether an individual is affected by alcohol or drugs.

The device pilot for saliva testing recommended provinces and territories “review their officers' authorities to detain a suspect during the oral fluid analysis process,” particularly after suspicion on reasonable grounds, the final report states.

It also recommends additional measures to keep the device and swabs at correct operating temperatures in places with extreme temperature conditions.

While 64 per cent of tests in the pilot were conducted outside of the manufacturer's suggested operating temperatures for cartridges, they returned 80 per cent of the positive results.

The manufacturer recommends operating temperatures between 5 and 25 C for the cartridges and between -20 and -45 C for the devices themselves.

In “extreme cold temperatures ... tests conducted outside of suggested operating temperatures were more likely to produce drug-positive results,” and further research on the devices' reliability is merited, states the public safety website.

The GNWT departments of infrastructure and justice were unable to respond to questions about how it will legislate on detection devices as of press deadline. The GNWT also did not respond by press time to questions about what threshold would permit an officer to detain a driver.

Drug screening equipment

The territorial legislation mentions drug screening equipment but limits its scope to forcing a person who is found to have a drug present, or fails to comply with a test, to surrender their driving licence.

Failure to follow an officer's directions will result in a 30-day suspension for drivers under the age of 22 and a three-day suspension for commercial operators.

Beirness said it remains to be seen how the drug testing devices work in stopping drugged driving.

“The fluid screening devices, one of which is about to be approved for use, will assist officers at the side of the road in determining whether or not a driver tests positive,” he said, adding an officer must have a suspicion the driver has a drug in their body.

“If they test positive, it will allow the officer to investigate further, including a blood test. How that's all going to play out hasn't really been determined yet. It's new, it's novel its different,” he said.

For all the reasons above, the matter is bound to reach the justice system for clarification, said Beirness.

“There will be court challenges, no doubt, and that's kind of necessary,” said Beirness.

Governments will need to establish how long an officer can keep a person by the roadside before consulting with a lawyer, where there are many precedents for alcohol, said Beirness.

“With cannabis, there will be a per se law that says if you're above a certain level of THC in your blood, you have committed an offence,” he said.

However, THC levels don't correlate as accurately to impairment as blood-alcohol levels.

Under the new impaired driving legislation under Bill C-46, impairment need not be proven, said Beirness.

“The law says if you have a (blood-alcohol level) over 80, you've committed an offence. The same will be true for cannabis.”

A person can be impaired long after falling below cannabis levels established in legislation, he said.

“There seems to be no direct level of correlation between THC levels in the blood and impairment,” he said.

Law enforcement should fall back on its existing methods of testing impairment: observing a driver and their behaviour at the roadside, said Beirness.