A Winnipeg man says that the police temporarily suspended his driver’s license while he was high despite the fact that he was not under the influence, and is arguing that the evidence used by the officers was not precise.
Sean Vipond, 30, said it was one of the 97 people who received licensing suspensions in the way earlier this year as part of an application campaign because they gave positive for cannabis consumption, but argues that it was not under the influence.
He was arrested in mid -February, after he had stopped in a local dispensary to buy vape pen cartridges and was on his way to pick up his wife from work, he told CBC.
Vipond said that at least 20 hours had passed since he consumed cannabis for the last time, but still positive for the drug after the police performed an oral fluid test, his mouth was touched.
“[Police] I told my face that there was no visible reason for suspicion. It was purely based on the fact that Weed had bought and then led, “Vipond said, adding that he was frustrated after the police announced the statistics of his application campaign last month.
“To see [Winnipeg police] To boast of this and act like all those who were trapped were … smoking recklessly during the day and driving high, when that is not really reality, it is humiliating. “
The Winnipeg police said that in an email the officers use drug detection equipment as approved by the Criminal Code, and that the positive evidence in said equipment results in a suspension of administrative license in Manitoba.
Last month, the police said that 47 percent of the 207 drivers who were evaluated by drugs using the detection approved between January and March as part of the “Don’t Don’t Don Don Don Don Don Don Don Don High” this year gave positive for cannabis consumption.
The Oral Hiopus test is intended to determine if the saliva of a driver has traces of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive component in cannabis.
But experts say that although these tests can detect cannabis in the system, they are not suitable for trying intoxication by themselves.
‘More research is needed’
They said that, unlike blood blood levels, THC levels are not an effective disability test.
The THC is a lipid who “slowly releases our bodies in normal metabolic processes over time,” said Robert Laprairie, associate professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Nutrition at the University of Saskatchewan.
“However, what that means functionally is that its release rate, or the rate of getting rid of the THC, will depend on things such as its general body fat content, the composition of the body, its sex, its gender, its weight and with what frequency or with what regularity use the THC.”
That means that while a test can show that a person has THC in his system, he may not necessarily be affected, he said.
Laprairie’s research specializes in cannabis, and has worked by exploring the effects that the drug has on the body.
He said that he has personally seen people processing THC in just two hours, while for others, he can take up to 36 hours.
“As a researcher, I think more research is needed. I think we need better tools to understand disability in terms of what would be an impediment in the use or use of cannabis.”
Dr. Jeff Brubacher, associate professor at the University of British Columbia whose research specializes in deteriorated conduction, said that even federal laws, which establish sanctions for drivers with two or five nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood, and the toughest sanctions for those who review that, are not reliable summary.
He said that the most effective way to verify disability can be an expert in drug recognition to perform a behavior test.
“But that is complicated, right? Special training is needed and several hours are needed to do that test, so it is not easily available,” he said.
Police need evidence before the tests: doctor
Brubacher investigated the drivers taken for treatment after accidents that showed 3.2 percent of the injured Canadian drivers who had their blood samples collected between 2018 and 2023 had high levels of THC (above five nanograms per milliliter). That compares with the 12.2 percent that had high levels of alcohol.
The THC test is “a tool in its toolbox” for the police, he said. But “before they can demand a saliva sample, [police] I need evidence that the person is affected. And if they don’t have that evidence, they shouldn’t use it. “
Vipond said that when he was arrested, he offered to show the police the cannabis products he had bought, to show that they were still sealed.
Police suspended his license for three days and confiscated it, what Vipond said he left him already his wife without moving around the city. He also had to pay a $ 50 rate for recalculating his driver’s security rating when he went to renew it.
“If you regularly consume, it will simply not pass that test, it doesn’t matter how careful it is,” he said. “They are using inaccurate tools and are allowed to treat them as if they were much more precise than them.”
