Local doc says pot not the be all, end all
By Gillian Slade on August 25, 2017.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com @MHNGillianSlade Cannabis will not be the panacea everyone with an ailment is thinking it will be, says a local physician, and it is going to challenge law enforcement when it comes to impaired driving. “If there ever has been an issue in medicine as clouded by opinion and ignorance, it is medical cannabis,” said Dr. Gaylord Wardell, anesthesiologist and pain specialist in Medicine Hat. The pro-cannabis forces have claimed everything from cancer cures to relief from pain but we don’t actually have research to verify this, said Wardell. “We will never know until research on a broad scale is done in North America, and doctors and politicians remove their prejudicial filters and actually look at the data,” said Wardell. “Much data is available in other countries but since it is not from here we are not required to look at it.” So far only a small number of Canadian doctors are authorized to prescribe medical marijuana but the number of prescriptions has increased quickly and will continue to do so, said Wardell. Whether you are using cannabis or taking sleeping pills, anti-psychotics, benzodiazepines, anti-nauseants and antihistamines you may be impaired when it comes to driving a vehicle, said Wardell. “Our officers have always and will always look for signs of impairment that include all substances,” said Insp. Joe West, MHPSoperational services division. The Criminal Code makes it illegal to drive with more than 80 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood, said West. This is measured with an approved instrument that is recognized by the courts. “There is no such instrument to measure the amount of drugs in a person’s body,” said West. Impaired driving is an issue front and centre with the legalization of marijuana to take effect in less than a year. West says it is one of the most significant public safety concerns for police. There is no approved technology for measuring the amount of THC (the compound in marijuana responsible for the impairment) in a driver’s blood, nor is there any threshold measurement for impairment like the blood alcohol limit, said West. Police cannot investigate an impairment by marijuana in the same objective way as with alcohol impairment. “Law enforcement is waiting for government direction on this and many other aspects of the legalization of marijuana,” said West. The Criminal Code Section 253(1)(a) states, “impaired by alcohol or a drug.” The challenge police face is linking the impairment to a drug and not alcohol. This is often difficult to do. “Officers note the signs of impairment (slurred speech, glassy eyes, poor balance, etc.) the same as they do for an alcohol impaired driver, and then note the reasons how they linked the impairment to a drug (drug pipe in the car, witnesses observing the driver using drugs prior to driving, medications found on the person, prior dealings with the driver, admissions from the driver, etc.),” said West. “These types of investigations are sometimes harder to conduct than typical impaired (by alcohol) investigations.” 16
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