Sarnia police say the small, southern Ontario city has reached a record high for impaired driving rates this year and are pointing to legalized cannabis and incoming edibles products as the problem.

Officers laid 41 impaired driving charges from January 2019 to August 2019 — a 41 percent increase from the same period last year, which saw 28 charges.

“I’m not sure what the cause of it is, but given the time of the rise, I can only assume the legalization of cannabis has something to do with it,” Cst. Shawn Urban told BlackburnNews.com.

“We’ve seen extremely high readings and vehicle accidents … with people impaired by drugs, we see people passed out behind the wheel. It’s very obvious to our officers that there are signs of impairment there,” he said.

A GrowthOp series revealed that the police officers don’t specify the specifics of DUI charges, like if the driver used cannabis.

The equipment used by police may also not detect edibles in driver systems.

And officials are calling on the federal government to add requirements for commercial drivers to undergo drug testing.

“The research just has to catch up with the fact that cannabis is legal,” Chris Gilpin, superintendent and director of highway safety for the Ontario Provincial Police, said in a phone interview for the series.

“Private industries are doing that type of research and work to create that product and equipment for better detection, and we’re just anxiously waiting for it to be presented and approved,” Gilpin said.

Mike Gorgey, the health promotions manager at the Lambton Health Unit in Sarnia, told CTV the rise in impaired driving isn’t surprising. “Whenever you increase the availability of a substance, the research indicates you also increase its consumption,” Gorgey said.

“Cannabis, in particular, with it being legalized, and now with cannabis edibles coming into play, I think that adds a new dimension to the problem of impairment.”

Gorgey said the health unit is developing a strategy to stop the number of impaired driving charges from rising.