It won’t be long before Newfoundland and Labrador’s RCMP is equipped with portable roadside drug-screening devices, the police service has announced.

Representing another tool to aid officers with suspected cannabis drug-impaired driving investigations, the devices “will be rolling out to various areas of the province in the near future,” according to the RCMP. In the next few weeks, 21 such devices will be distributed in locations across the province.

The drug-screening device operates by conducting a rapid drug test using an oral swab from the driver suspected of being cannabis drug-impaired. It registers as a pass or fail, with the latter “indicating that the driver has active cannabis levels that are above the legal limit.” The legal limit is two nanograms of THC per millilitre in whole blood, notes information from the provincial government.

If that is the case, the driver could be arrested for drug-impaired driving as the police probe continues. For those thinking about refusing to comply with a demand for a sample, a criminal charge could be laid that “carries the same penalties, upon conviction, as impaired driving.”

Drivers in Newfoundland and Labrador found to be driving while impaired “will face driver licence suspensions, fines, vehicle impoundment and/or time in jail,” notes the provincial government. If a person has more than five nanograms of THC per mL of blood, that could mean a fine or imprisonment, “with 30 days in jail as the mandatory minimum for repeat offenders.”

Those under the age of 22, commercial drivers and novice drivers cannot have “any detectable presence of cannabis in their body,” as confirmed by approved a roadside screening device, the information adds.

The drug-screening device conducts a rapid drug test using an oral swab from the driver suspected of being cannabis drug-impaired. / PHOTO BY RCMP

Looking forward, the plan is to procure at least one unit for every RCMP detachment in Newfoundland and Labrador. Until then, officers province-wide will continue to use Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST) as another means of detecting drug impairment.

According to Legal Line, a police officer can demand an oral fluid sample and/or conduct SFST if he or she suspects a driver has drugs, alcohol or both in their system after being pulled over. “These roadside tests cannot be used as grounds to lay a charge or used as evidence in a criminal trial. Therefore, if a driver fails one of these two tests, the police officer will have grounds to demand further testing at the police station,” the information explains.

The federal justice department notes “blood samples are required to prove the new blood drug concentration offences.”

Training on using the devices began this week and will continue over the coming months, the RCMP reports, cautioning that impaired driving continues to be a factor in multiple serious injury and fatal collisions every year.