Drunk Driving Lawyer Edward Prutschi Discusses Regulations Around “Drugged Driving”

Drunk driving lawyer Edward Prutschi sat down with Jerry Agar on Newstalk 1010 to discuss how the government plans to regulate driving and marijuana usage once it becomes legalized next year.

Dubbed “drugged driving”, the government recently released their rough plan for how they will be judging if a person is impaired by marijuana while driving. The issue with the report is that while parameters for appropriate levels of THC in the blood were released, no one knows how much weed it takes for an individual to reach those levels.

Ed Prutschi says it’s not a simple answer. While we now have great scientific data on how much alcohol it takes to reach legal limits, as well as in what forms and how long it takes. With cannabis and THC, there is no scientific data to back up the government claims. THC is also more complicated since different people need different amounts of marijuana to reach the same levels of highness. The data doesn’t even account for how the weed gets ingested, such as smoking vs. eating, either.

Right now the only way to test for drugged driving would be a blood test, which would be difficult to administer roadside. Even with devices (none of which are currently deemed legal in Canada), Prutschi says there is no scientific ground for the laws that the government is creating. Even the scientists doing the research say they may never have the answers, and they are years behind on research.

For criminals and criminal lawyers, like Ed Prutschi, this will be an exciting mess. Without scientific basis, arguing against the charges will be easy. This will, however, have a negative effect on the court, tying them up even more than they already are.