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New numbers out on how many charges Edmonton police have laid in the first year since marijuana became legal cover everything from pot-impaired driving incidents to cases of youths trying to buy weed.

The stats , presented last week to the Edmonton Police Commission, include both charges for Criminal Code offences like cannabis-impaired driving, as well as non-criminal charges under the provincial Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Act.

Impaired driving

Keeping people from driving high has been the biggest priority for Canadian police departments since cannabis became legal last October. The Edmonton Police Service initially asked for a big funding boost to cover the costs of policing legal pot, but were rebuffed by council.

Edmonton police recorded 79 drug-impaired driving incidents in the first six months of 2019. But that may only tell part of the story.

The report notes that in cases where officers suspect a driver is impaired by both drugs and alcohol, they will test for alcohol first. “When this is confirmed, alcohol charges will be laid, and generally, further testing for other types of impairment will not take place,” it says.

Detecting cannabis in someone’s bloodstream is also notoriously difficult. Whereas a breathalyzer can be administered roadside without much trouble, testing for THC is another matter entirely. As of July, the federal justice minister has OK’d two saliva-testing devices designed to detect recent cannabis use. One of those, the Dräger 5000, is being piloted by Edmonton police through the end of this year. While the report states “no specific issues” have arisen with the device, it has been criticized for functioning poorly in cold weather and delivering a troubling number of false positives.

Between the first half 2012 and the first half of 2018, drug impaired driving rose 172 per cent — not surprising, given the difficulty of testing and its new status as an enforcement priority. Overall impaired driving incidents were down 36 per cent during that period.

Skunk in the trunk

By far the most common Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Act charge laid by police is for improper transport. Section 90.25 (1) of the provincial Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Act, states: “No person may transport cannabis in a vehicle unless the cannabis is contained in closed packaging that is out of reach of the driver and any other occupants of the vehicle.”

Or, as city police put it in their latest campaign, put your “skunk in the trunk.”

Const. Dexx Williams, EPS’s cannabis compliance officer, said: “We don’t want to lay charges or give tickets to people who are trying to follow the laws, but we have to take violations involving cannabis in vehicles very seriously.”

Police laid 209 improper transport charges in the first eight months of 2019 — accounting for nearly 69 per cent of all non-criminal cannabis charges.

Other charges

Police also laid other Cannabis Act charges between January and August of this year. They include:

Use of cannabis in a vehicle: 57

Minor in possession: 23

Minor obtaining or attempting to obtain cannabis: 4

Unlawfully selling cannabis: 3

Unauthorized growing of cannabis: 3

Smoking or vaping cannabis on school/hospital/child care property: 2

Smoking in a non-smoking zone: 2

Edibles on the way

So far, the impacts of legal pot on policing have been “ lower than expected,” Edmonton police said in the recent report. However, the service says it will need to “further adapt” as cannabis edibles become legal, scheduled for Oct. 17, 2019. The federal government staggered the rollout of edible pot over concerns about its potency.

—with files from National Post, Nicole Bergot

jwakefield@postmedia.com

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Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019