It is absurd to have a law that prohibits driving under the influence if the definition of "impaired driving" is not complete. Impaired driving means driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs. A police officer can determine the alcohol level in a person's blood by a breath sample, but drugs are not so easily detectable. Sections 253-256 of the Criminal Code of Canada need to be revised because they do not define a legal limit for drugs, do not mention prescription drugs that are perfectly legal, but can impair driving, and do not recognize DRE - drug-recognition experts.
The legal limit of alcohol is less than 80 milligrams in 100 milligrams of blood. What should be the limit for drugs and how can it be tested? The most popular drug is marijuana, and it can only be detected by a blood or urine sample. The topic of marijuana is very controversial and there are as many people who argue that it impairs driving, as there are people who are convinced that it has no effect. Every person reacts differently to this drug, so how is it determined that marijuana caused impairment in your driving? Marijuana can stay in your system for days or even weeks at a time, so after the tests are done, how is it determined whether you smoked just before you drove or a week ago? Are there are possible road tests that can prove that there is marijuana in your system? What about other drugs? All these questions need to be answered and solutions need to be included in sections 253-256. .
Prescription drugs can also considerably impair driving ability. For example, at least eight studies have examined the risks patients have of being in a motor vehicle crash when taking benzodiazepines (drugs such as Valium) versus patients not using such medication. The studies have reported the relative risk for those ingesting such agents as ranging from "no greater" to up to 4.9 times greater. Patients need to know what drugs are associated with greater risk and the Criminal Code needs to have a mention of these drugs in the impaired driving sections.
