Like it or not yesterday was the first day cannabis sales were legal in Canada. The change in law has brought with it new municipal bylaws as well as provincial and federal laws. The unfortunate part about the bylaws at the municipal level is they are not consistent from municipality to municipality. This means there are going to be some growing pains and people who are not paying attention to which towns and cities allow public smoking and which don't will find themselves at the other end of fines. There is also the case of driving under the influence testing. There has been a great deal of concern regarding the accuracy of those tests especially considering how marijuana can linger in the system. A recent Fifth Estate investigation suggested that the testing can be unreliable and other studies have posed the question about whether the presence of the drug in the system actually proves impairment. While there might be some merit to the argument, the simple fact is enforcement will be stepped up now that people are able to smoke more freely. With that will come increased testing and likley increased charges. Whether the test can truly test impairment is moot. People often argue that the .05 and .08 blood alcohol levels for alcohol don't necessarily mean impairment for all types of people. If you are pulled over with either marijuana or alcohol in your system, you deserve to be charged. It is that simple. Preparation for the legal roll out and for the laws that will accompany it have been well publicized for more than year, there is no excuse for driving with the drug in your system. Unfortunately, as we have seen with alcohol, some people don't care. Those irresponsible types were responsible for more than 1,200 deaths in 2014 according to MADD Canada. We doubt the families who lost loved ones care whether the intoxicated drivers believed they were impaired. Maclean's Magazine Most Dangerous Places 2018 study pegged Cochrane as 16th highest out of 229 police jurisdictions for driving while impaired, which was an increase from the year before. While we know people were smoking weed prior to legalization, bringing it out of the shadows has the potential to make it more prevalent. If that happens we hope that sad and dangerous stat does not rise with it. Whether you drink or smoke don't drive and be aware that cannabis might stick around in your system longer than you think, so plan ahead.
