Ontario Premier Doug Ford is accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of “rushing legal cannabis out of the door” before police have a reliable machine to test for drug-impaired driving, and charges this is “putting people at risk.”

Ford called on the federal government to “address this critical issue” and took a personal potshot at the prime minister, accusing him of being a “no-show” as recreational marijuana becomes legal.

“With legalization upon us, where’s Justin Trudeau?” Ford said in remarks to the Ontario Provincial Police Association on Tuesday at Blue Mountain. “When it comes to defending his cannabis plans he might as well be in the witness protection program.”

Ford also sent a more diplomatically worded letter to the prime minister, raising concerns that the only testing device approved by Health Canada “may not provide accurate results in cold temperatures.”

That’s a reference to the Drager DrugTest 5000 machine, whose size makes it inconvenient to put in a police cruiser and works best above 4 C. While some police forces have purchased them, many have not.

“Our law enforcement officials remain without the necessary tools and support they need from your government to reliably test for drug-impaired driving,” Ford’s letter said, emphasizing that it is the federal government that is legalizing cannabis.

“The decision…belongs to your government and your government alone,” added Ford, who has come under fire from some quarters for scrapping the previous Ontario Liberal government’s plan to restrict where weed can be smoked and to limit sales to a small number of state-run stores.

Ford’s government plans to allow toking anywhere the smoking of tobacco is legal and sales of pot in an unlimited number of private-sector stores.

Police forces, however, have ramped up training to certify officers as drug recognition experts through an international program that teaches them how to evaluate if a driver is drug-impaired — a situation Ford’s attorney general acknowledged.

“Our police officers have been working non-stop,” Caroline Mulroney told reporters Tuesday. “They’ve been taking the steps they need to in terms of training officers, on more and more standard field sobriety tests, drug recognition experts.”

“We’re asking the federal government to do what it needs to do, which is to approve additional devices so that police officers in Ontario and across the country have what they need to determine, detect impairment.”

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To date, 833 officers across Canada have passed the drug recognition, as the Star reported earlier this month.

Police are taught a 12-step physical evaluation that assesses a driver’s psychomotor abilities, similar to the standard field sobriety test given for decades, along with checking vital signs including blood pressure and temperature. In the program, officers have to correctly assess 12 impaired people and determine which category of drug they are on, whether it be cannabis, hallucinogens, stimulants or depressants. Urine samples are also taken as evidence.

Motorists who are suspected of drug impairment at the roadside will be taken to a police station for the evaluation, which takes about 45 minutes.

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Trudeau fielded several questions on cannabis legalization in Ottawa on Tuesday, although he was not asked about testing machines.

The prime minister reiterated that marijuana is being legalized and grown by licensed producers so the government can regulate it and squeeze out the black market to keep weed away from people under the age of 19.

“We know that if we treat it like alcohol, we regulate, we control what is in it and we make sure that at the point of sale there is verification of identity card,” he said in French.

“We’re not controlling cannabis because we think it’s good for you.”

Bill Blair, Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction, said he had not heard of Ford’s comments but said the federal government has been working “quite closely with all of the provinces, including the province of Ontario.”

“They have an important responsibility here and I think there is a consensus right across the country that we’ve got to do a better job of protecting our kids,” he told the Star.

“Each of the provinces has the authority and the responsibility to ensure that they establish appropriate regulations to do the right thing.”

Mulroney warned that the Ontario Cannabis Retail Corp. online store will be the only place to legally buy marijuana in this province until private brick-and-mortar stores open next April under a government licencing regime expected to pass in legislation Wednesday.

Once that law takes effect, cannabis dealers charged with operating illegally will face fines of up to $1 million and two years in jail.

“Anyone currently participating in the illegal market should stop now,” Mulroney said.

With files from Bruce Campion Smith

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