Re: [OT] Ontario Provincial Police beginning mandatory breathalyzer use on EVERY traffic stop

The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca> wrote:

Thu, 2 May 2024 22:59:01 -0400, Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com>:

Hmmm. Since marijuana has been legal in this country for several years,
will they also force every driver stopped by the police to go to a
hospital for the test that determines if the driver is high? If yes,
that's going to cause some real congestion in the hospitals. If no, why
not? This seems to show distinct discrimination against people impaired
by alcohol versus those impaired by pot.

For what it's worth, about 10 years ago I asked a local city
councillor (who was a retired 27 year Vancouver police officer) what
piece of equipment not now available but plausibly available within
the next 10 years the police department would most like to have.

He told me a reliable portable breathalyzer - and he said the hardest
part of it was working out a reliable level at which one is in fact
impaired - for marijuana (analogous to 0.08 which is used most places
for alcohol impairment.

That's a good point. I have watched videos on YouTube produced by a defense
attorney who advises to refuse the roadside test because the evidence is
crap. They don't get calibrated properly before each test and it's
straightforward to challenge them in court. I haven't seen one in which
he explains how police measure impairment due to marijuana use.