CALEB NICKERSON
CAMPBELL’S BAY
July 11, 2018
With the legalization of cannabis set for this October, local police forces are training their officers to be able to properly assess drivers impaired by narcotics.
According to Sûreté du Québec (SQ) communications officer, Sgt. Marc Tessier, most officers have been taught to recognize impaired drivers but in order to acquire enough proof to lay charges, further testing must be done.
“The vast majority of police officers are [already] trained to do roadside tests to detect drug use,” he explained. “After that is done, the person is brought to the station and we have a specialist that has to do more extensive tests.”

Tessier said he didn’t know how many “drug recognition evaluators” – as they are officially known – would be stationed in the Pontiac, but said there are currently four working for the SQ in the Outaouais region.
According to a June 26 CBC article, MRC des Collines Police currently have one evaluator on their force and the Gatineau Police have six.
In order for officers to request drug recognition training, they must already have their certification for alcohol recognition. Tessier said that the course at the SQ academy in Nicolet is three weeks long and is currently taking on 12 students per class. He was unsure how many would be trained by the time recreational cannabis becomes legal on October 17.
“By the end of October, I don’t know. The main message is that we are ready, because we can detect it by the side of the road with every police officer,” he said. “For example, if we do not have [an evaluator on duty] because he’s sick or something, we can also contact our partners like Gatineau police or MRC des Collines to see if someone’s available and they do the same with us.”
Tessier said that though there is currently no breath-testing machines for drugs, like with alcohol, the rest of the evaluation is fairly similar.
“I don’t have all the steps, but it’s about 45 minutes to an hour,” he said. “[The evaluator] does a physical coordination test, observation of physical signs, blood temperature and clinical signs, and at the end the person has to give a urine sample.”
There are currently several companies working to come up with roadside testing equipment for THC, but Tessier said that they are still being tested and none have been approved for use so far.
When asked if he expects drug-impaired driving cases to rise this fall, he declined to speculate.
“Right now, it’s not legal and we’re seeing some [cases],” he said. “I can’t comment on if it’s going to change, it’s too hard to tell.”