Driver faces charge of operating a vehicle while impaired by drugs

A 60-year-old taxi driver has been charged with drug driving after some sharp-nosed, off-duty officers sniffed out the smell of weed coming from his parked vehicle at a Collision Reporting Centre.

The driver had reported a rear-end collision involving the cab, notes a statement this week from the Greater Sudbury Police Service.

As he sat in his vehicle, officers arriving for work at the Police Community Response Centre “detected a strong odour of cannabis coming from the taxi cab,” the statement reports. Upon approaching the vehicle, the driver began to reverse and almost struck the officers.

The officers opted to carry out a Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST), which resulted in the cabbie being arrested for impaired driving.

When can police officers perform sobriety tests?

The federal government reports that the Criminal Code of Canada provides law enforcement officers with powers to obtain breath or blood samples and administer physical sobriety tests. “However, officers cannot currently require a driver to comply with any roadside test unless they have reasonable grounds to suspect the driver has alcohol or drugs in their body,” the information states.

An SFST can be done if an officer has reason to suspect drugs in the body. This test involves such things as walking and turning.

A subsequent test was done by a drug recognition expert, a 12-step procedure involving, among other things, a breath test, an interview of the arresting officer, examination of the driver’s eyes, clinical indicators such as blood pressure and temperature, darkroom examination of pupil sizes, toxicological samples and the opinion of the evaluator. The police report that the expert confirmed the driver was impaired by a drug.

Automotive specialists The Humberview Group reports that having 2 to 5 nanograms of THC per millilitre of blood could result in a summary conviction and as much as a $1,000 fine while having more than 5 nanograms of THC per millilitre of blood could lead to a criminal charge, fines and possibly jail time.

Charged with operation while impaired by drug, the cabbie is scheduled to appear in court on Apr. 20. In the meantime, his driver’s licence has been suspended for 90 days and the taxi was towed and impounded for seven days.

Cannabis smell has attracted police attention in the past

The smell of weed has landed plenty of drivers in hot water in past. Last December in Ontario, a 42-year-old Ontario was charged after officers smelled cannabis during a RIDE check stop and ended up finding two bags of cannabis.

In October of 2021, a trucker’s cargo didn’t pass the sniff test when the driver apparently tried to cover up the distinctive skunky scent by spraying a whole lot of air freshener.

And in the fall of 2020, a Kentucky deputy’s sense of smell prompted him to chase down a passing truck whose smell indicated there was weed on-board.

The 21-year-old driver was ultimately charged with, among other counts, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of methamphetamine, speeding, tampering with physical evidence, wanton endangerment and fleeing or evading police.

Cannabis smell is not always necessary to attract attention, of course, especially when unlawful acts affect the police directly.

Consider the Ontario man bused for impaired driving and possession of a psychedelic drug after slamming into the back of a police cruiser, or another Ontario man who is believed to have parked his weed-smelling SUV in a public lot of Ontario’s Provincial Police’s Wiarton detachment and then fleeing the scene when an officer tried to investigate.