There is no surefire way to detect impaired driving, including those who are under the influence of marijuana, researchers from the Cannabis Control Commission said Friday.
“When we started this project, we didn’t know how complex this issue is,” said Julie Johnson, director of research for the CCC. “The issue is it’s the impairment we’re trying to get at. … We can’t get at the acute impairment as the science stands right now.”
Speaking to members of the Special Commission on Operating Under the Influence and Impaired Driving, Johnson and Samantha Doonan, also a researcher for the CCC, said published studies show drawbacks to every current method of testing for marijuana, and said a Breathalyzer equivalent is unlikely to come for years. The Special Commission is tasked with submitting recommendations to the Legislature about proposed legal and policy changes to address impaired driving.
Johnson and commission members said the best tool authorities have right now are drug recognition experts — specially trained officers who have been taught to identify impairment and the specific kind of drug.
“At this moment in time it’s probably the most effective tool we have to detect people who are impaired from marijuana,” said Peter Elikann, a defense attorney and a member of the commission. “When my clients get arrest for operating under the influence of drugs or marijuana, those cases are the hardest for the prosecution to prove. People usually get off on those because the techniques are not what they should be.”
Despite the legalization of recreational marijuana, there is no legal standard for marijuana impairment and no equivalent to the .08 percent blood alcohol level standard for alcohol. Until there is a reliable way to test for marijuana impairment, authorities will have to use a combination of drug recognition experts and other means to address drugged driving.
“You have to take everything into consideration. There’s not going to be a silver bullet here that’s going to take care of everything, like we have currently with alcohol,” said Chief John Carmichael, chief of the Walpole Police Department and a commission member. “Law enforcement is still going to do what we’ve always done. Nothing’s changed yet, so far. If the police officer on the street feels that somebody’s impaired, they’re obligated to remove them from the street and they’re going to do that.”
As retail pot shops continue to open, including the third in the state in Salem today, the urgency to put a standard set of policies in place increases, Elikann said.
“Every study we’ve seen shows that marijuana, when marijuana becomes legalized, it really does raise the number of impaired drivers on the road,” he said. “It is urgent.”
Under the state law that created the commission, the recommendations have to be sent to the Legislature by Jan. 1. The commission will meet again next week. Shawn Collins, chair of the commission, said the recommendations will likely be wide-ranging.
“It’s going to set, hopefully, a road map in what we, in our individual capacities convened here, can do on our behalf,” Collins said. “This is not necessarily a single issue. This involves and engulfs a lot of different areas.”
