Canada is not ready to test for stoned drivers says B.C. MP

According to criminal defense lawyers, saliva tests are notoriously unreliable in court because the effects of THC are proven to stay in the body for more than 30 days.

To combat this the federal government announced they would implement a two part roadside testing process, which involves a more reliable blood test following a positive saliva test. But according to South Okanagan—West Kootenay NDP Member of Parliament Richard Cannings, that blood test for THC poses serious issues.

Cannings spoke at length last week in the House of Commons regarding what he says is a troubling aspect of Bill C-46 involving roadside testing drivers for cannabis impairment.

According to Cannings, the roadside testing method the federal government plans to implement is flawed.

“I sat on the justice committee while we were discussing this and the basic facts are that you can test for THC in the blood, but there is no relation between the amount of THC in your bloodstream and your impairment,” said Cannings from the House of Commons in Ottawa.

“Anyone who uses marijuana on a regular basis will have chronic levels of THC in their blood and will test positive to a roadside test but it has no relationship to whether they are impaired at that exact moment.”

Roadside testing that looks for THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, in the blood will essentially turn anyone who has legally smoked marijuana in the past week into a criminal as soon as they sit behind the wheel.

Unlike alcohol, THC affects your brain faculties more than it affects your locomotor problems, which makes tests like touching your nose or walking a straight line ineffective. However, those impaired by THC do commonly have a slow response time, which may be a good place to start with roadside tests.

“You have to test for THC impairment and there are ways that we can do that, but you can’t just test for THC in the blood because it will be meaningless. Medical marijuana users have already contacted me and said they are ready to take this issue to the Supreme Court of Canada,” said Cannings.

“Testing for THC in the blood would be criminalizing people who use marijuana, when the whole idea was to legalize it,” explained Cannings.

Cannings reiterated that he is in no way suggesting that people under the influence of marijuana are safe drivers, but that the government has to test for impairment in a different way than alcohol.