Despite public awareness campaigns and the training of law enforcement to deter marijuana driving, one-third of Canadians who have recently used cannabis say they have been behind the wheel after consuming it, according to a new government survey. .
The online surveyconducted in January 2022 by EKOS for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada and recently published online, says 33 per cent of Canadians who report using cannabis during the previous year say they have driven under the influence.
The survey says that among Canadians who have used cannabis at some point in their lives, about 26 per cent say they took to the streets after using it.
The survey analyzed 2,193 responses, randomly recruited mainly through a self-administered online questionnaire, with 10% contacted by mobile phone. The margin of error is about 2.09 percent.
When asked to explain their behavior, about 10 percent of respondents said they did not know better at the time or that they had no education about the risks. About 39% said they did not feel affected and another 23% said they thought they could drive safely.
Just under a third (30%) of respondents said they had traveled in a vehicle when they knew the driver was tall.
The federal government has been warning Canadians about the risks of driving under the influence of cannabis since before most cannabis products were legalized in 2018 and cannabis groceries were legalized in 2019.
“There is no good excuse for driving with disabilities, and being a passenger with a driver with disabilities is also risky.” says government website on drug driving.
To raise awareness about the dangers, Public Safety Canada developed a “Don’t Drive High” campaign in 2017 that included paid advertising. The government has described the campaign as a success, citing its reach on social media such as Facebook, television and other media.
Hard-to-dispel cannabis driving myths: MADD Canada
The country’s main disability advocacy group says it is a “myth” that cannabis use does not affect driving ability or makes one a better driver.
“Unfortunately, there’s this lingering myth that if you drive under the influence of cannabis, you’re … a better driver than when you’re sober,” Eric Dumschat, legal director of MADD Canada, told CBC News.
“And that’s one of the things I know that at MADD Canada, in particular, we have a hard time evicting. It’s this myth that people think they’re safe drivers.”
While the results of the survey suggest that the government’s awareness campaign, in which MADD participated, has not deterred some drivers, Dumschat said governments had an obligation to discourage driving with drug problems before of the legalization of cannabis.
In a statement to CBC News, a Public Safety Canada spokesman noted the results of the survey suggesting greater awareness of the effect of cannabis on drivers.
Eighty-six percent of respondents, including those who do not use cannabis, agreed that the drug impaired their ability to drive. This figure is the same as in 2020, but is higher than the 81% recorded in 2017, when similar surveys were commissioned by the government.
“The results of the public opinion poll referred to show that a growing number of respondents agree that cannabis use impairs the ability to drive,” the public safety statement said. “This is further supported by the results of the Canadian Cannabis Survey. “
Dumschat said efforts to raise awareness can only get this far and that deterrence also has a role to play.
“So one of the things [governments] I have to keep doing it, and it’s something I know they are, they’re continuing to train police officers in the use of standardized field sobriety tests, ”he said.
Police need to use “a drug recognition assessment and … oral fluid detection technology,” he added, “so that people really understand that if you drive under the influence of a drug, the police have the ability to detect and catch you. “
An Ottawa police officer is administering a field sobriety test to a driver during a traffic stop in 2018. More than 27,000 police officers in Canada had been trained to administer the test by the end of 2020, according to government data federal. (Matthew Kupfer / CBC)
More than 27,000 police officers across the country had been trained for the Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST) by the end of 2020, according to government data. Police services are also buying more approved drug detection equipment; they bought 107 such devices in 2020, compared to 48 in 2018.
Police services also rely on the “Drug Recognition Experts” (DREs) trained by the RCMP to assess deterioration, but the government says COVID-19’s public health restrictions have made it difficult to form new DREs. There were 1,135 DREs active in the country in 2021 compared to 1,279 in 2020, according to government figures.
The government survey reports that only two percent of those who said they were driving with disabilities did so because they thought they could evade law enforcement.
Drinking and driving is even more dangerous: MADD officer
Dumschat said his view is that while driving with cannabis problems is dangerous, it is not as dangerous as driving under the influence of alcohol.
Eugene Oscapella, who teaches drug policy at the University of Ottawa, said he would like the government to focus less on cannabis and its effects on driving and more on other driving behaviors that can be harmful, such as driving after taking certain prescription medications. , or driving despite lack of sleep.
“It’s not a good idea to drive while you’re impaired, but.
Drug policy expert Eugene Oscapella says some people will always drive with problems, even if they know the risks. (Radio-Canada)
He said drivers who use cannabis only care much less about it than drivers who use it in combination with alcohol or other drugs.
Oscapella said he is not sure the government has many good options to completely eliminate the problem.
“I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t know if there is an answer,” he said.
“There will be a percentage of the population, whatever the advertising campaigns, whatever the sanctions, that will go to lead in situations where they have been affected by alcohol or drugs.”