The Unknown New Frontier?

"We've been planning for this. We knew this was coming a long time ago. We've been planning for this since the early 2000s."
"Here's the big danger with cannabis. It affects different people in different ways. There's different concentrations, how fast you take it in, your own metabolism [how long you've been smoking and your own individual tolerance as a result] -- you can be both physically impaired by cannabis and psychologically impaired."
"Alcohol is so simple. Alcohol is linear. Alcohol is well understood, well researched and affects everybody the same way. They've set the per se limits on what it is that makes you functionally impaired by alcohol. We don't have that luxury with cannabis. It's literally the unknown new frontier."
Sgt.John Kiss, impaired-driving countermeasures, Ottawa Police Service

VPD Chief Adam Palmer, president of the Canadian Chiefs of Police, says law enforcement across the county is ready to deal with legalized recreational marijuana. (Nicolas Amaya/CBC)

"[With the legalization of recreational weed], young adults, who are already at risk of automobile crashes, may increase their use of cannabis, which may further increase the risk of crashes."
"[While pot seems to have no notable effects on driving without distractions], complex driving-related performance [car ahead suddenly braking; child crossing street] was affected at all time points after cannabis use."
"[Perhaps during the acute] post-cannabis [phase, people] are indeed able to effectively focus on tasks [but as people descend from the] high [3, 5 hours later, impairment sets in, they're more tired, easily distracted]."
CMAJ Open research paper, McGill University

"It wasn't like somebody tottered off and died alone on the street. The police were there, the paramedics were there, our staff were there, everybody did everything that was humanly possible. It's just a very tragic situation."
"The problem is that all the usual ways, the protocols you have for dealing with overdoses don't necessarily work the way they're supposed to [with the analogs]."
"That's the challenge. Us, the paramedics, the police are dealing with these unpredictable situations where you don't know what's going to happen next."
"People are taking things they think are opioids but instead you get this psychosis, really agitated behaviour."
"So what's in it? What's causing that? Nobody really knows. As soon as we become familiar with how the overdoses play out, the drugs change. It's like we're always chasing our tail."
Wendy Muckle, executive director, Ottawa Inner City Health

A cannabis retailer holds 30 grams of loose cannabis buds. (Rafferty Baker/CBC)

The countdown to legalization of cannabis in Canada is in the home stretch. Two days more, one day until 17 October. Everyone, it seems, is confused, uncertain, wary, fearful. Other than those who are quite singly expectant and happily so. But the issue is far wider than people who enjoy relaxing with a toke on their time off. It's how the entire legalization to free up casual recreational use of marijuana will, in the final analysis, play out. Imagination aside, the details of how society in general will be impacted won't be fully known for quite some time. In the meantime, health and security authorities quiver and quaver, and perhaps with good reason.

From the medical community there was resistance to legalization from the word go. Doctors uncertain how to handle requests from patients. Hospitals bracing for arrivals out of commission. There have been reports as it is of children being admitted to hospital with marijuana poisoning to their system; children will be children; curious, attentive and experimental. The medical use of cannabis has been underway in Canada for years, with people attesting to its efficacy and doctors relieved to find something that will give pain-suffering patients some break from pain otherwise difficult to alleviate. Other than, say, Fentanyl.

Now, with legalization, apartment dwellers are uniformly being informed that they cannot smoke up anywhere in common areas, much less their own apartments since the smoke filters through to other units. Municipalities have enacted bylaws forbidding smoking in most public places, a reiteration of the no-smoking bylaws in place for tobacco. Employers are grappling with the issue of ensuring their employees are well advised not to smoke up on the premises, much less appear at the workplace stoned. Landlords shudder at the prospect of houses ruined by modest grow-ops' mould. Law enforcement agencies forbid their members to smoke pot during working hours, in fact not at all.

Canadian perspective: If you like smoking the occasional spliff, keep it under your hat when talking to U.S. border agents; they regard this as an illegal act, even though marijuana will soon be legal in Canada and is already in some U.S. states.  (Glenn Russell / AP file photo)

Researchers at McGill University have published a new paper with the results of their study on marijuana-infused driving, finding that the use of pot before driving increases risks of a crash up to and including five hours after inhaling. Reaction time decreased significantly, effects lasing up to five hours on inhaling just one typical joint. According to a Canadian Automobile Association-funded  poll, one in five millennials (18- to 34-year-olds) believe in their ability to drive as well, or even better, while stoned as compared to sober.

The result of the study is the recommendation for "lower risk cannabis use", translated to mean no driving before at least six hours has elapsed before getting behind a steering wheel after smoking a joint. Statistics Canada data reveals that some 1.4 million Canadians report having been a passenger in a vehicle driven by someone fuelled by cannabis in the previous two hours while one in seven cannabis users with a driver's licence report they drove at least once within two hours of using pot in the past three months.

Police are uncertain, but on the alert. Ottawa's Police Service began in 2012 to insist that each new officer be trained to administer a standard field sobriety test -- so now close to 40 percent of front-line police are trained in roadside screening. Their message is simple and it is direct; choose one or the other. If you smoke, don't drive. If  you choose to drive irregardless of warning, police trained to detect pot will prosecute the issue. If their suspicion is aroused for any reason they can pull anyone over; odour of marijuana, glazed eyes, confusion will all give the user away.

Three roadside tests will ensue following which an evaluation will take place by a drug-recognition expert. There's a growing proliferation of those specially-trained experts on call. There will be a check to determine if a driver's eyes involuntarily jerk following an object; they will be monitored whether a nine heel-to-toe step routine can be negotiated, and then asked to stand on one leg, counting to 30. If the routine testing for balance, capability for following instructions and short-term memory fails, arrest for impaired driving follows.

In the months to come, with some level of experience of public reaction demonstrating some significant measure of outcome, everyone may become a little more relaxed about the transformation from illegal and criminal to legal and watch-it....

Image via Canadian Press