Do you know a young driver who uses marijuana? The British Columbia government has finally announced its rules and regulations for non-medical marijuana, and it’s all bad news for Novice drivers. As with alcohol, the provincial government will use a zero tolerance approach for all Novice drivers.
At its surface, this seems to make sense. But it’s important to remember that how long marijuana remains in the body is much different from alcohol. The presence of marijuana can remain for days and even weeks within the body, unlike the hours required for alcohol to be fully absorbed. And if a Novice driver decides to experiment with pot, chances are they’ll be deemed an impaired driver even if they haven’t consumed marijuana recently prior to driving.
For something supposedly legal, these regulations go beyond zero tolerance.
Being an impaired driver in BC has significant consequences. As part of the new rules and regulations, BC will implement a 90-day administrative driving prohibition for drug affected driving. The key word here is “administrative.” That means, unlike the Criminal Code legislation, there’s no requirement to prove an offence beyond reasonable doubt. It is up to the driver to challenge the allegation, not up to the officer to prove it.
Unfortunately for N drivers, this means that as long as an officer believes you are driving high on pot, that’s generally good enough for a prohibition.
How long will N drivers be prohibited from driving for using marijuana?
How long will a Novice driver be prohibited? Well that depends. If the 90-day administrative scheme for drug-driving is anything like what we have for alcohol-impaired driving, it can range anywhere from 24-hours to 90 days.
The “per se” limits set by Parliament sets the definition of criminal drug-impaired driving as 2 to 5 nanograms of THC per millilitre of blood. It is possible that administrative penalties will start at lower than 2 nanograms of THC per millilitre of blood for all drivers.
And remember, for N drivers, it’s zero tolerance. This means any presence of marijuana will trigger a driving prohibition.
To provide some context, consider this study published in 2009. It suggested a frequent user of marijuana had 3.0 nanograms per millilitre of blood seven days after last consumption. Seven days of abstinence. Following which, this user was still above the per se limit set by Parliament as a baseline for impairment.
To completely eliminate any trace of marijuana in the system will undoubtedly take far longer.
One pot-impaired offence for ‘N’ drivers can be a six month prohibition
So do you know a Novice driver who has experimented with pot? Because even a single use a month prior to driving may cost them their licence.
Put it this way: a Novice driver experiments with marijuana at a friend’s house on the weekend. Weeks later, he or she is pulled over by police and given a saliva swab, or perhaps the officer is just convinced they were high on marijuana.
This driver now receives anywhere from a 24-hour driving prohibition up to a 90-day driving prohibition. And since we’re talking about a ‘Novice’ driver, under the existing RoadSafetyBC guidelines, this qualifies the driver for an additional driving prohibition for up to six months.
So we’re now up to a potentially nine-month driving ban for smoking a joint weeks before getting into the driver’s seat of a car. Oh, and since the driver has had a prohibition during their ‘N’ period, their Graduated Licensing period resets.
They’ll have to drive without prohibition for another two years before they can be tested for a full Class 5 driver’s licence.
For something supposedly legal, these regulations go beyond zero tolerance. This regulation is almost equivalent to the government saying, “You’ll never drive again if you use marijuana while you still have a Novice licence.”
Keep in mind, while the legal age of marijuana consumption is 19, there are still many drivers in British Columbia who are in the age of majority, but who still use a Novice licence.
Though there’s much talk about marijuana being legal, it seems that legalization may have simply brought about new penalties that significantly harm this demographic.