Canadian State Passes New Roadside Sobriety Test

From Cannabis Culture magazine comes this reference to the new drug enforcement regime passed by the Harper government in Canada. I guess the alliance of neocons and evangelicals were really pissed off when the BC Supreme Court struck down their attempt to axe the safe injection program for heroin addicts in that province. The folks at CC point out that repression of these "recreational pharmaceuticals" is ridiculous. For example in Florida deaths from legal prescription drugs are about three times the rate from the illegals ... and no deaths were reported from marijuana usage. The excuses here are the usual. One kid smokes dope and has a car accident so all the nanny-statists start crying for another law. As a libertarian I am opposed to the state telling people what they can smoke, or eat, or drink. The assumption is always that the average person is a child and only social workers and such like are capable of making rational decisions. This is a continuation of the punitive measures taken in the United States which now has the highest per capita prison population in the world. Northwestern European and Canadian cities are in general much safer places than comparable cities in the United States. At the bottom of this post is a video made by Canadian country/punk/folk singer Joey Only. Joey expresses his own feelings about all this stuff.

As of July 2, police officers will be able to require drivers to submit to a roadside sobriety test. As well, they can take drivers they suspect of being on drugs to a hospital for either a blood, saliva or urine test. Under previous laws police who stop drivers they suspect of being under the influence of drugs can ask for a fluid sample to determine whether the person is intoxicated. However, Nicholson said, police are(were) also required to inform the individual that they aren't obligated to comply with the request.

Drivers who refuse to comply will be subject to a minimum $1,000 fine -- the same penalty for refusing the breathalyzer. Police will be given their new powers to nab drug-impaired drivers after almost five years of intense debate in the federal Parliament.

The law, passed this year after three failed attempts, has been lauded by law enforcement and groups who say drug-induced drivers are escaping unpunished at a time when their numbers are climbing. "Love it," said Gregg Thomson, a father from Kanata, Ont., who predicted Tuesday that the new testing will deter people from driving under the influence of drugs, just as the breathalyzer test produced a drop in drunk driving. Thomson has been lobbying for a new law since 1999, when his son, Stan, and four of his high-school friends were killed when a 17-year-old who had been smoking marijuana attempted a highway pass that led to a pileup. The crash became a catalyst for the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving to start pushing for changes to the Criminal Code, which outlaws drug-impaired driving but until now has not included measures that allow police to order a battery of tests.

The new law, however, has sparked warnings about potential court battles from critics who contend that demanding bodily fluids is overly intrusive and scientifically unreliable in detecting drug impairment. "This is going to be challenged left and right," predicted Murray Mollard, executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. Beginning next Wednesday, drivers suspected of being high will be required to perform physical tests at the side of the road, such as walking a straight line. If they fail, they will be sent to the police station for further testing by a trained "drug recognition expert" and then be forced to give blood, urine, or saliva samples if they flunk the second test as well.