DriveSmartBC - What About Zero Drugs?

[skidmark]

One of the conditions attached to the driver's license of any new driver in British Columbia's Graduated Licensing Program (GLP) is that the driver must have zero blood alcohol when they are operating a motor vehicle. Of course, the idea behind this is that the driver has enough to worry about while driving the vehicle without adding alcohol to the mix. So, what about drug use?

This question came to my mind one afternoon while I was observing a lineup of vehicles stopped for the flag person at a construction zone. I found a lone male GLP "N" driver who wasn't wearing his seatbelt and pulled him out of the line when it moved on. As soon as I walked up to the driver's door I could smell the marihuana smoke inside, and since the windows were down and he was alone, I knew who had been smoking.

His green bordered license with the zero alcohol condition printed on the back had me thinking about other reality changing drugs. Shouldn't a new driver have a zero tolerance condition for those as well? He spoke to me candidly about smoking a joint while waiting for the construction and I made careful notes and a no charge drug seizure.

Before the end of my shift I contacted the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles. No, we're not interested was the response. The Superintendent would only take action if the driver was issued a 24 hour suspension or was charged criminally for impaired driving by a drug other than alcohol.

The situation is the same today. A new driver cannot drink and drive, but it's OK to toke up and drive as long as you don't do enough to be suspended or charged. I repeat, what about zero drugs?

Reference Links

[BallPeenHammer2]

I agree, that ALL drivers should be drug free.

However, there's the problem with PROVING it....The whole "what kind of drug taken when with what effects for how long with what symptoms and was it tested by urine and blood and where".

Too bad testing for drugs are different than alcohol.

Can't test for THC and then traces of cocain at the same time on the roadside, whereas alcohol's pretty universal.

[vafanculo]

So I take it you seized his weed and let him go?

What are the consequences of driving high? I thought you get your car towed as if it were booze?
Posted via RS Mobile

[Matlock]

Maybe allow police to extract blood, urine, and stool samples?
Also make it illegal to be drugged up for anybody.

[baggdis300]

Originally Posted by vafanculo

So I take it you seized his weed and let him go?

What are the consequences of driving high? I thought you get your car towed as if it were booze?
Posted via RS Mobile

i had gotten a 24/hr just for HAVING weed in the car...

so if buddy man let him go then wow, hes one lenient cop

[Berzerker]

Well drugs is a funny topic because there are plenty of prescription drugs that can cause way more adverse effects than smoking pot. As a N driver any kind of impairment should be taken into consideration.

Berz out.

[Bainne]

Originally Posted by Matlock

Maybe allow police to extract blood, urine, and stool samples?
Also make it illegal to be drugged up for anybody.

CCC s.258 ensures that this method will never be a viable method for test, and rightfully so.

The day a police officer, an untrained medical expert, conducts an invasive search on an individual merely on the SUSPICION of impairment, will be a day I hope I never live to see.

That said, I believe they implemented the "DRE" program in Canada a while back, with the power to demand saliva, blood or urine samples. There is a rather extensive regiment that must adhered to before getting to this stage, and certain officers are trained extensively to specifically look from drug impairment.

[Soundy]

When I get high, I get high on speed!
Top-fuel funny car's a drug for me!

[ninjatune]

Usually to get a 24-hour prohibition for impairment by drugs there has to be symptoms of impairment. Some officers will bend this rule and issue 24-hour suspension's without many symptoms. It would be nice to have some type of ASD for drugs but until that technology arrives in the hands of officers, things will stay the way they are.

Weed, like alcohol, shouldnt be consumed before driving, no matter how much or how little

[TheNewGirl]

Originally Posted by Berzerker

Well drugs is a funny topic because there are plenty of prescription drugs that can cause way more adverse effects than smoking pot. As a N driver any kind of impairment should be taken into consideration.

Berz out.

Agreed! I have several co workers who regularly drive under the influence of narcotic pain killers (such as T3s and Vicodin) and seem to think that because these are prescribed by a doctor they won't impair the cognition and reflexes at all.

[BallPeenHammer2]

^ Says on the package for T3'd, Vicodin or any other prescription painkillers/anti-depressants NOT to operate vehicles or heavy machinery while using.

[da-suu]

yo thats awsome, last summer 80% of the time i drove i was high. and honestly when ur high ur more relaxed driving so u know what ur doing. plus u drive alot better. its not like u keep lots of weed on u. One cop told me that he couldnt do anything about me when i was high. even tho u are , he has no proof of it.

Rather be driving high , then driving drunk any day!

EDIT: i love the part where it says "But its OK to toke up"

[hchang]

I remember asking a similar question to Zulutango a little while back... and if I remember correctly I was told that officers are trained to look at the movement of eyes, and if they suspect drugs are a factor, they can call in a drug "expert"?

Originally Posted by Matlock

Maybe allow police to extract blood, urine, and stool samples?
Also make it illegal to be drugged up for anybody.

With a urine sample it'll only tell the police officer that you've smoked pot sometime within the past 30 days, it won't tell you exactly when you used the drug, or if you're under the influence.

Originally Posted by da-suu

yo thats awsome, last summer 80% of the time i drove i was high. and honestly when ur high ur more relaxed driving so u know what ur doing. plus u drive alot better. its not like u keep lots of weed on u. One cop told me that he couldnt do anything about me when i was high. even tho u are , he has no proof of it.

Rather be driving high , then driving drunk any day!

EDIT: i love the part where it says "But its OK to toke up"

You're retarded.

[TheNewGirl]

Originally Posted by BallPeenHammer2

^ Says on the package for T3'd, Vicodin or any other prescription painkillers/anti-depressants NOT to operate vehicles or heavy machinery while using.

I know but people seem to think 'if this is helping me I should be fine'. I was on some meds for a while that magnified the effects of alcohol so I could be at blood alcohol .03 but feel and act as if I was at .06 and my friends didn't understand why I refused to drink at all. They were like 'If you get pulled over you'll blow under a warn, you'll be fine. And technically I would be. But I also could have killed someone.

People have strange blinders when it comes to prescription drugs they pop them like candy but don't want to deal with any aspect of them that might be an inconvinence to their lives.

[TheNewGirl]

Originally Posted by da-suu

yo thats awsome, last summer 80% of the time i drove i was high. and honestly when ur high ur more relaxed driving so u know what ur doing. plus u drive alot better. its not like u keep lots of weed on u. One cop told me that he couldnt do anything about me when i was high. even tho u are , he has no proof of it.

Rather be driving high , then driving drunk any day!

EDIT: i love the part where it says "But its OK to toke up"

[gars]

driving while high, i think, can be just as bad as driving drunk. I got high the other day downtown at my friend's place. I thought I sobered up. I got into the car, started it, then realized that I felt sooo slow and stupid still. So I took a nap for an hour before I drove.

Different weed makes you feel different, and quite a few different strains can make you have even slower reaction times than alcohol.

[BallPeenHammer2]

When I get high, and before I drive, I play GT5.

If I can't complete Tokyo R246 in under a consistent 1:35 in a ZR-1, I can't drive.

LOL.

[ninjatune]

Originally Posted by TheNewGirl

They were like 'If you get pulled over you'll blow under a warn, you'll be fine. And technically I would be. But I also could have killed someone.

You could still be done for a 24 hour suspension even blowing below a "WARN" if the officer had reasonable grounds to believe you were still impaired by alcohol. IE: someone who never drinks and weighs 120 lbs and at .04 mg% could be impaired.

[sebberry]

Originally Posted by da-suu

yo thats awsome, last summer 80% of the time i drove i was high. and honestly when ur high ur more relaxed driving so u know what ur doing. plus u drive alot better. its not like u keep lots of weed on u. One cop told me that he couldnt do anything about me when i was high. even tho u are , he has no proof of it.

Rather be driving high , then driving drunk any day!

EDIT: i love the part where it says "But its OK to toke up"

Paging Soundy!

[geeknerd]

Originally Posted by ninjatune

Usually to get a 24-hour prohibition for impairment by drugs there has to be symptoms of impairment. Some officers will bend this rule and issue 24-hour suspension's without many symptoms. It would be nice to have some type of ASD for drugs but until that technology arrives in the hands of officers, things will stay the way they are.

Weed, like alcohol, shouldnt be consumed before driving, no matter how much or how little

Doesnt DUI include drugs along with alcohol? u dont need to show symptoms of drunkness to get a prohibition.

Also, didnt you(skidmark) have the grounds to charge him of dui/seize his car etc? him admitting that he just had a joint?
If so, why didnt you do it?
if you coudlnt, its time for me to hotbox

[zulutango]

[QUOTE=da-suu;7263440]yo thats awsome, last summer 80% of the time i drove i was high. and honestly when ur high ur more relaxed driving so u know what ur doing. plus u drive alot better.

Anybody else need any more proof that drugs rot your brain? Wonder how he would feel if the pilot in his next Westjet flight flew ripped 80% of the time.. or his ER doctor (when he crashes because of his better driving) was ripped 80% of the time when he operated on him to save his life? This is not "fast times at ridgemount high"...this is real life dude. You don't drive better when you are high. If you did then all the world's champions would be blasted when they raced. If you insist on doing this would you post it on RS first so we can get our family and friends off of the roads you are driving?

[jlenko]

Originally Posted by gars

Different weed makes you feel different, and quite a few different strains can make you have even slower reaction times than alcohol.

And you don't know what that weed has been laced with either.

[Soundy]

Originally Posted by zulutango

You don't drive better when you are high. If you did then all the world's champions would be blasted when they raced

Hahahaha, this is so true. Never fails to amaze me, the number of wannabe-racers who think they have it all figured out from a couple years of street driving. Reminds me of the thread here a couple years ago where some guy poo-pooed the 10-and-2 positions and insisted that he had more control driving with one hand on the wheel and the other hanging out the window (or picking his nose, or up his arse, or whatever). Same question applied: if that works SO much better, then show me just ONE professional race driver who actually races that way. F1, NASCAR, Rally, you name it... they all drive both hands on the wheel. Figure it out, Sherlock.

[underscore]

Originally Posted by da-suu

yo thats awsome, last summer 80% of the time i drove i was high. and honestly when ur high ur more relaxed driving so u know what ur doing. plus u drive alot better. its not like u keep lots of weed on u. One cop told me that he couldnt do anything about me when i was high. even tho u are , he has no proof of it.

Rather be driving high , then driving drunk any day!

EDIT: i love the part where it says "But its OK to toke up"

You're a moron. Please remove yourself from driving immediately.

[Soundy]

Originally Posted by underscore

You're a moron. Please remove yourself from the gene pool immediately.

Fixed that for you...