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Happy Legalization, Canada!

It’s now been a little over 24 hours since cannabis was legalized, and near as I can tell, there has been no sudden carnage on the roads and highways caused by stoned drivers. Go figure. Which brings me to a bittersweet ending to my weekly series on the Drug Recognition Evaluation Program.

This week, I cover the toxicological evaluation. Or, in layman’s terms, the urine or blood test. Each of these is problematic for its own reasons.

This week, on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays we see just what happens when you don’t listen to your cousin after he tells you not to eat his potato chips. Then, we look at the case of a woman who was just a little too obsessed with Dirty Dancing. Finally, our morbid fascination with cases involving death takes a strange turn into the realm of criminal harassment. Read on to find out why!

On this week’s episode of Driving Law, I speak with Roy Ho of Acumen Law Corporation about the new $50 fee for unlisted drivers in ICBC insurance rates. We talk about whether that will lead to an increase in impaired driving by discouraging designated drivers. But before that, Paul Doroshenko and I talk about the speed limit increases on BC Highways and a supposed increase in deaths and injuries. But that may not be the case…. Then, we talk about the charges laid against the Humboldt trucking company involved in the bus crash disaster, and whether that might have a bearing on the case against the truck driver.

This is a jam-packed episode, so be sure to tune in on SoundCloud, subscribe on iTunes, or find us on PlayerFM.

As we come to the end (only one week left!) of the Twelve Weeks of DRE-Mas, we also come to what is arguably the most easy and arguably the most difficult step of the DRE examination. And this is the step where the DRE officer considers all of the evidence and comes to the conclusion about what is going on.

This week’s edition of Weird and Wacky Wednesdays focuses on one thing in particular. As we inch closer to cannabis legalization, I thought I would break down three very weird, very wacky cases involving cannabis and the law. Because you can’t get much better than a super high person doing something super funny… except when they do it in Florida, of course.

So, in honour of cannabis legalization, read on and find out more about crazy cannabis crimes!

Oh boy. This week’s episode of the Driving Law Podcast is a must-listen if you’re at all concerned about cannabis impaired driving. I speak with Ron Moore, a forensic toxicologist and lawyer, who has unique expertise in cannabis impairment and driving. Ron has also helpfully provided a bibliography with the studies he relied on in making his comments, and you can find that bibliography if you click “Read More” below.

You can catch Driving Law on SoundCloud, subscribe on iTunes, or listen on PlayerFM.

If you were following along with this series from last week, you know that this step in Canada is combined with the check for muscle tone. However, the official twelve steps of the program have separated this step from the check for muscle tone.

In some ways, as I will describe below, this is one of the more troubling aspects of the DRE examination.