and you will be one of the first busted when the roadside pot test becomes available. Which is only a couple of months away once another province is finished its testing.
For the record, I do not condone drug/alcohol impaired driving. That said, they have roadside testing equipment, but my question is how accurate is it. When people talk of driving high, what is the threshold for impairment/over the limit. Not everyone is smoking a huge fatty and driving. Just like not everyone is having 8 drinks and driving. If I went out for dinner and had 2 glasses of wine, I'd be nowhere close to the limit. If I had one or two puffs off a joint over the same time period, am I under or over the limit?
We know your body processes an average of 1 standard drink per hour. What about THC? It's clearly not the same. I think there's going to be some serious court challenges with this new equipment. Which makes publishing people's names for drug/alcohol driving offences even worse.
Generally I agree in this concept of not shaming people as a tactic especially for grey areas however when these people are harming or have the potential to harm others because of breaking the law intentionally then what better method do you have to deter others from doing the same?
Well that's the question, is it actually a deterrent or just public shaming. They've been doing it in several jurisdictions for years. It should be easy to compare the numbers of alcohol related driving charges before and after they started publishing names. I've heard some stats reported on the radio that it has not made a difference. If you find any conclusive evidence that it's working, by all means, post a link.
Seldom is the actual reading ever truly challenged in court. The roadside breathalyzer doesn't give a reading, it gives a Pass, Warn, or Fail. The machine at the station gives a quantitative number. The science behind the machine and the results are pretty solid, so its tough to show they were wrong.
Correct, sort of. The Pass, Warn, Fail has a level associated with it. Where you can run into trouble is if your BAC is between 0.05 and 0.08 which is the warn range. If you blow a Warn, you'll receive an immediate 3-day licence suspension. This cannot be appealed. An additional $250 penalty begins January 2019.
In this case, the Police are the Judge, Jury and Executioner. It should be noted that while your actual BAC may be below 0.05, residual alcohol in your mouth (especially if you had a shot prior to getting pulled over) could put you well over. I know this to be a fact as I've done experiments with friends using a high end, portable breathalyzer that uses fuel cell sensor technology.
The difference in readings between two people of the same sex, size and weight, having had the same amount of food and alcohol before the test, varied considerably when one person drank a glass of water prior to the test. In other words, rinsing your mouth with water can lower your breathalyzer reading.
Many times, breathalyzer readings may be inaccurate because the machine may
be affected by mouth alcohol. If a person has used a substance such as mouthwash before a breathalyzer test, the machine may give a reading that shows a high level of alcohol content in the person’s breath. This means that the machine will show that the person is legally intoxicated even though they may be completely sober.
It's worth noting, considering the Police will suspend your licence for 3 days, tow and impound your car on the spot for blowing a Warn. So it's entirely possible to gargle with mouthwash, get in your car, get pulled over a few minutes later and blow a warn.
Unfortunately license suspensions aren't that effective. We've all heard of drivers with lifetime bans doing it again and again. A ban only works if the person respects it. There is nothing to physically stop them.
Breath alcohol ignition interlock device...