Whether the next greatest social experiment or a huge tax grab, Canada is the world’s second nation to legalize marijuana use throughout its entire sovereign terrain. Whether others are curious or plain paranoid, the other country is Uruguay. “The North American country joins the South American country Uruguay as the only two nations in the world to make the use and distribution of cannabis legal,” wrote Ebony‘s Sarafina Wright.
Canada’s Cannabis Act (C-45 and C-46) has its kinks, though. Like the United States having some contraindications regarding pot sales and use —federal prohibition versus states’ legalization— Canada has its hiccups and confusions as well. And today is the roll-out day for Canada’s marijuana legalization.
Naturally, driving while under the influence of marijuana is illegal. If cops detect such an impaired motorist, a traffic stop and subsequent DUI investigation, to include field sobriety tests, are in order. Canada’s Cannabis Act allows law enforcement officers to conduct a blood draw under “reasonable suspicion” and use specimens as evidence to bolster cases and potentially lead to conviction. But, there is just one problem: blood draw logistics and personnel trained in phlebotomy have yet to be figured out, putting the proverbial cart before the horse. And cops are stymied at the moment.
According to Canada’s The Providence newspaper, “Under the new law, police can demand a blood sample once they have reasonable grounds to believe a person is impaired, such as a failed sobriety test or a positive result on a saliva-testing device.”
The New York Times reported: “Most [Canadian] police forces will rely on roadside sobriety tests. Others will use roadside saliva tests. But most people suspected of driving while high will ultimately be given blood tests. Refusing any of the tests will be a crime. Training for police officers is lagging, however, and the federal government has acknowledged that most forces, including its own Royal Canadian Mounted Police, still don’t have the ability to perform blood tests.”
Interestingly, some of the propositions being bandied about consist of contracting with on-call phlebotomists, stipulating that they must respond within 20 minutes of being summoned by police personnel. Why the narrow window of time? Because Canada’s Cannabis Act has written in among the language that any blood draws of suspected impaired motorists must be conducted within two hours after the traffic stop is initiated, so the clock is ticking toward handcuffing the police. On-standby medical personnel may be costly. Even though larger police agencies can more easily sustain the costs, what about smaller departments with already meager, choked budgets?
Some believe the answer to that last dilemma is training Canadian cops to draw blood themselves. Personally, I know of a very rare few police officers who happen to be trained phlebotomists. Those select few are prior EMTs or part-time paramedics. It is about extremely unorthodox. The only one I am aware of, who also infamously made international headlines, was the Salt Lake City, Utah detective who demanded a University of Utah Medical Center nurse draw blood from a patient who was in a coma (and not necessarily a suspect in any event). The nurse cited the patient’s rights. She also read hospital policy prohibiting what he ordered her to do, in violation of the very agreement the hospital and Salt Lake PD agreed to beforehand. And that, minus a warrant, she could not legally comply with his request. It didn’t work out amicably.
The police detective strong-armed her out the exit doors and arrested her curbside. She was un-arrested in minutes. The media storm went on for several weeks. Professionally, he didn’t fare well. Economically, she received a handsome settlement after the police agency declined to fight her lawsuit, opting to compensate her instead. In any event, he was one of the unicorns in law enforcement who draws blood (even though that option didn’t merely grant him access to an unconscious hospital patient).
That was in the United States; back to Canada’s flaws.
So, let’s say Canada decided to have cops trained to take blood. That implies a needle, a definitely deployable weapon against any police officer deemed to be on the bad side of the accused from whom blood is being withdrawn. As for Officer Safety 101, that would be a no-go! Traditionally, a medical professional such as a physician, nurse, phlebotomist, EMT, paramedic or trained medical technician handles these chores. Cops stand idly by (including physical restraining of resistant suspects) to ensure scene safety, enforce custodial authority, and maintain chain of evidence procedures. Other than the Utah case we previously discussed, poking veins is not a thing for cops in my opinion and/or experience.
According to Brian Platt, a journalist based in Canada, “It’s possible that police officers in some regions [of Canada] could eventually be trained to draw blood themselves, though no police force has yet confirmed that is the plan.” As we mentioned, that’s because it is unwise and goes against officer safety principles. I do not see such a thing happening. That proposes another issue with how the Cannabis Act is written: Stipulating blood draws must be concluded within two hours of the traffic stop, police departments in rural areas without logistical proximity to a medical center or health professional to draw blood dampens the notion of legally acquiring definitive science-based evidence to use in court, in the timely manner as proscribed. That presents a seemingly ill-considered construct, a quandary for law enforcement trying to get impaired drivers off the road as well as sew-up seamless cases for conviction.
These hiccups make one wonder if the Cannabis Act was streamlined through legislation without much aforethought regarding practical enforcement and successful prosecution.
Speaking to Canadian media, Calgary Police Sgt. Rich Butler, who heads the impaired driving unit, offered the following distinction: “This is admittedly a new area that we have not pursued before in policing. Any time we’ve pursued taking blood from impaired drivers, it’s always been in a hospital setting.” Other than the occasional qualifying circumstances and legally sanctioned drawing of blood on scene in the compartment of an ambulance, the hospital has been the mainstay place to extract blood from suspects. Many occasions have I stood sentry over a detained impaired driver while medical personnel take blood. And, yes, they rebuke and sometimes physically resist.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale sees things rather optimistically. According to The Canadian Press, Mr. Goodale “is very confident police have the necessary training and resources to enforce impaired driving laws after the legalization of recreational cannabis…” I guess if you don’t work the streets and are not the one in harm’s way while enforcing statutes in the field, your view is rosy:
“Bill C-46 created a new class of offences based on blood drug concentration, which allows for much easier prosecution. If lab results show a driver’s THC in the blood is above a certain level, police can criminally charge the driver without having to further prove impairment,” the Province news reported. That certainly places emphasis on somehow making blood draws as practicable as possible while staying within the law’s parameters of two hours invested for bio-evidence collection.
Show Me the Money
Perhaps the alluded to enormous costs to hire on-call phlebotomists can be derived from the reportedly exorbitant licenses the government charges dispensaries. Additionally, Canada’s cannabis laws stipulate an automatic excise tax built in to the price structure when consumers purchase weed at government licensed/regulated retailers. That is before a general sales tax is also imposed. As reported by Ian Austen et al. with The New York Times, “Most people expect the police to have extra motivation to close them now, [referring to illegal pot shops dotting Canada for years], given that the government will profit from legal marijuana sales and taxes.”
As the Canadian stock exchange opened today with their bell clang, “the bell-ringing room was full of suit-wearing executives with assistants and portfolio managers of exchange-traded funds that have transformed a black-market business into a multibillion-dollar industry,” wrote MarketWatch reporter Max Cherney.
Just how meteor-like is Canada’s cannabis industry? Cherney states, “There are 18 stocks with a combined market value of $36 billion [USD] on two major Canadian exchanges — five years ago, there were none.”
So, I’m pretty confident the funding is available among all that green’s green, affording the necessary resources to aid Canadian cops with requisite blood-draw rituals. By resources I mean trained/licensed civilian personnel whose skills include drawing blood.
In his two-pronged campaign promise in 2015, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated about cannabis, “By controlling it, by legalizing it, we’re going to make it more difficult for young people to access and we’re going to ensure that criminal organizations and street gangs don’t make millions, billions of dollars of profit every year.” Interpret that as you wish. Again, the money is there to more than adequately finance police departments and the cops who are working the streets by pulling over suspected impaired motorists whose blood is required for successful prosecution and derived via civilian personnel.
It must be said: One would think such details would be part-and-parcel among discussions by Canada’s legislators. How does a gargantuan-size country omit the logistics of a nationwide statute enforced by its law enforcement officers?
No matter what Canadian law enforcement authorities come up with, we can safely assume it doesn’t resemble the following scenario and/or the use of a roadside kazoo:
Do it right. Fund the police procedures and legal requirements now. And please put the kazoo down. It only simulates (encourages) practicing holding a joint while behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. Thank goodness they waited for the Stop sign to turn green, eh?
