City police alarmed by high rate of stoned drivers caught in campaign

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This article was published 01/02/2024 (624 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg police are warning motorists against drug-impaired driving after officers identified nearly two dozen drivers who were stoned in recent weeks.

“Our message is simple: don’t drive high. It is dangerous, detectable and definitely illegal,” said Sgt. Stephen Fontaine of the Winnipeg Police Service, Thursday.

Fontaine, who co-ordinates impaired driving countermeasures, revealed the results of an enforcement operation that began Jan. 16.

In less than a month, traffic officers initiated 131 traffic stops and conducted 48 roadside drug tests. Of those, 23 people tested positive for cannabis.

“That’s very concerning to police. If you do the math on that, we are looking at almost 50 per cent,” Fontaine said.

“What we are finding is that there are many misconceptions. One is that cannabis makes you a better driver. Well, that’s simply wrong… People just don’t appreciate the dangers of getting behind the wheel while high.”

Fontaine stressed police have the ability to detect drivers who are under the influence of all forms of drugs; and the consequences of being caught driving under the influence are the same, regardless of the substance used by the driver.

He demonstrated how police use electronic drug analyzers to detect the presence of illicit substances in saliva collected from drivers.

The police force has 17 such devices, he said.

While test results can vary depending on the amount and method by which cannabis is consumed, the effects can last for up to eight hours and will reliably appear on oral swabs up to three hours after drug use, Fontaine said.

The police service, accompanied by Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada president Tanya Hansen Pratt, used Thursday’s news conference to launch an education and enforcement campaign that will continue throughout this month.

The campaign will feature multi-media advertisements aimed at dispelling myths and raising awareness about drug-impaired driving. It is supported by $35,000 from the federal government.

Winnipeg residents can expect to see anti-drug-impaired driving messaging in social media posts, billboards and in a brief, police-produced commercial.

Increased enforcement will continue throughout the month.

“I really hope that the public takes this campaign to heart and that we can have the same amount of ownership with the ‘Don’t drive high messaging’ that we have with ‘Don’t drive drunk messaging,’” Hansen Pratt said.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca