{"id":10520,"date":"2016-07-26T17:16:14","date_gmt":"2016-07-26T17:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:81\/wordpress\/?p=10520"},"modified":"2016-07-26T17:16:14","modified_gmt":"2016-07-26T17:16:14","slug":"drug-impaired-ontario-drivers-will-be-subject-to-more-suspensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/drug-impaired-ontario-drivers-will-be-subject-to-more-suspensions\/","title":{"rendered":"Drug-impaired Ontario drivers will be subject to more suspensions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to the Toronto Sun, beginning on October 2, Ontario law enforcement will have broader power in roadside stops. A police officer will then be allowed to issue \u201cescalating roadside driving suspensions of three, seven or 30 days\u201d if the officer has a reasonable belief that the driver in question was driving while\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.torontosun.com\/2016\/07\/10\/roadside-saliva-test-coming-for-toking-and-driving\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">impaired by the use of drugs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The article cites Bob Nichols of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation for a description of what Ontario police do when they stop drivers whom they suspect may be\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/Impaired-Other-Driving-Offences\/Impaired-Driving\/index.html\">driving while high<\/a>. A Standard Field Sobriety Test or SFST is performed at the side of the road. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police website describes an SFST as consisting of a \u201cseries of standardized sobriety tests.\u201d Several websites describe the SFST battery as including three tests: the horizontal gaze nystagmus, the walk and turn, and the one-leg stand.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to Nichols, if the officer feels the driver performed poorly on the SFST tests, a \u201cmore complete testing protocol\u201d may be arranged called the Drug Recognition Expert Evaluation, including blood or urine testing for the presence of various drugs.<\/p>\n<p>The RCMP may charge a driver criminally for driving under the influence of drugs with or without an SFST test battery or with or without a DRE evaluation, or for refusing to comply with a test request.<\/p>\n<p>The Vancouver Sun article cites a June 30 discussion paper by the Task Force on Marijuana Legalization and Regulation as recommending the use of an \u201coral fluid test\u201d or \u201csaliva swab\u201d during a vehicle stop that would identify marijuana, opioids, ecstasy, amphetamine and cocaine in the driver\u2019s system. The saliva test is being actively researched in Canada and internationally.<\/p>\n<p>The president of MADD Canada says in the article that the Canadian Criminal Code would need to be amended to allow such a roadside saliva test.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, penalties are severe for drugged driving and anyone stopped for or charged with driving under the influence of drugs should seek the advice and advocacy of a defence lawyer as soon as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to the Toronto Sun, beginning on October 2, Ontario law enforcement will have broader power in roadside stops. A police officer will then be allowed to issue \u201cescalating roadside driving suspensions of three, seven or 30 days\u201d if the officer has a reasonable belief that the driver in question was driving while\u00a0impaired by the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-10520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drunk-driving","tag-drunk-driving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nrlawyers.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}