Recreational pot will be legal in Canada in just a few months and groups across the country are preparing for this new reality — including the Saint John police.
Constable Travis Jones says they also have seven officers trained as drug recognition experts with plans to grow that number.
The SJPF is also on track to hit the provincial goal of 40-percent of front-line officers trained in the standardized field sobriety tests by the end of the year with 37-percent now trained and more training scheduled in the fall.
“We’re prepared, we’re continuing to grow our capacity but we’re already in a good position to be able to deal with the increase that I feel strongly is coming with the legalization of cannabis,” says Cst. Jones, who is the coordinator for both programs.
“We only have to look to the south, states like Colorado and Washington who have some great statistical information on the increases of impaired driving as it relates to cannabis users. We know that’s coming and we are preparing to be able to meet that increase in occurrences.”
The official date for cannabis legalization is October 17, 2018.
