Despite public awareness campaigns and law enforcement training to deter marijuana-impaired driving, a third of Canadians who have recently used cannabis say they were behind the wheel after drinking, according to a new government survey.
The online surveyconducted in January 2022 by EKOS on public safety and emergency preparedness in Canada and recently published online, says that 33% of Canadians who reported using cannabis in the previous year said they had driven under the influence.
The survey says that among Canadians who have used cannabis at some point in their lives, about 26 percent say they went on a trip after drinking.
The survey analyzed 2193 randomly selected responses, mostly through a self-administered online questionnaire, with 10% contacted by mobile phone. The permissible error is plus or minus 2.09 percent.
When asked to explain their behavior, about 10% of respondents said they did not know better at the time or were not aware of the risks. About 39 percent said they did not feel harmed, and another 23 percent said they thought they could drive safely.
Just under a third (30 percent) of respondents said they traveled in a vehicle when they knew the driver was tall.
The federal government is warning Canadians of the risks of driving while under the influence of cannabis, even before most cannabis products are legalized in 2018 and cannabis foods are legalized in 2019.
“There is no good excuse for driving with a disability, and being a passenger with a driver with a disability is also risky.” government drug driving website.
To raise awareness of the dangers, Public Safety Canada developed the Don’t Drive High campaign in 2017, which includes paid advertising. The government called the campaign a success, citing its reach on social networking sites such as Facebook, television and other media.
Cannabis drives myths that are hard to dispel: MADD Canada
The country’s leading group for the protection of driving with disabilities says it is a “myth” that cannabis use does not affect the ability to drive or makes it a better driver.
“Unfortunately, there is this persistent myth that if you drive under the influence of cannabis, you are … a better driver than when you are sober,” Eric Dumshat, MADD Canada’s legal director, told CBC News.
“And one of the things that I know that we at MADD Canada are having a hard time displacing is the myth that people think they’re safe drivers.”
Although the results of the survey show that the government’s awareness-raising campaign – in which MADD is involved – has not deterred some drivers, Dumschat said governments have an obligation to discourage drug driving on the eve of cannabis legalization.
In a statement published to CBC News, a public safety spokesman for Canada cited the results of the study, which suggest increased awareness of the effects of cannabis on drivers.
Eighty-six percent of respondents – including those who do not use cannabis – agreed that the drug impairs their ability to drive. This figure is the same as in 2020, but up from 81 percent in 2017, when similar surveys commissioned by the government were conducted.
“The results of the above-mentioned public opinion poll show that an increasing number of respondents agree that cannabis use impairs the ability to drive,” the public safety statement said. “This is further supported by the results of Canadian cannabis study“
Dumshat said awareness-raising efforts could only go so far, and deterrence also plays a role.
“It simply came to our notice then [governments] they have to keep doing it, and that’s something I know they are about, to keep training police officers to use standardized sobriety tests on the spot, “he said.
Police need to use “drug recognition assessment and … oral fluid screening technology,” he added, “so people can really understand that if you drive while under the influence of drugs, the police have the ability to detect you.” and catch “
An Ottawa police officer is conducting a field test for driver sobriety while stopping in 2018. More than 27,000 police officers in Canada have been trained to administer the test by the end of 2020, according to the federal government. (Matthew Kupfer / CBC)
More than 27,000 police officers across the country have been trained in the Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST) by the end of 2020, according to government data. Police services are also purchasing more approved drug screening equipment; they purchased 107 such devices in 2020, compared to 48 in 2018.
Police services also rely on RCMP-trained “drug recognition experts” (DREs) to assess disability – but the government says COVID-19’s public health restrictions have made it difficult to train new DREs. There were 1,135 active DREs in the country in 2021, compared to 1,279 in 2020, according to government figures.
A government poll reports that only two percent of those who said they drove with a disability did so because they thought they could avoid law enforcement.
Drinking and driving are even more dangerous: an MADD employee
Dumshat said his view was that while driving with cannabis disabilities was dangerous, it was not as dangerous as driving under the influence of alcohol.
Eugene Oscapella, who teaches drug policy at the University of Ottawa, said he would like the government to focus less on cannabis and its effects on driving and more on other driving behaviors that can be harmful – such as driving. after taking certain prescription drugs. , or driving despite lack of sleep.
“It’s not a good idea to drive while you’re injured, but we have to be careful to locate the problem, the severity of the problem, among other factors that can make driving dangerous to other people,” he said.
Drug policy expert Eugene Oscapella says some people will always drive with a disability, even if they know the risks. (Radio Canada)
He said drivers who use cannabis alone worry him much less than drivers who consume it in combination with alcohol or other drugs.
Oscapella said he was not sure the government had a very good chance of eliminating the problem completely.
“I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t know if there is an answer,” he said.
“There will be a percentage of the population – no matter what the advertising campaigns, no matter what the penalties – who will drive in situations where they have been harmed by alcohol or drugs.
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