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As was widely foreseen, the Liberals’ “Legalize marijuana in as awkward, truculent, and impractical a way as possible” legislation has created a whole new industry. I don’t mean selling weed, of course: we had that trade before. I’m referring to newspaper columns, op-eds, and interviews about how crummy this law is. I have about 120 deadlines in the next 12 months, and I could use this topic for … 30? Maybe 40?

For now, let me cover just one aspect of legalization: the issue of roadside testing for marijuana impairment. The law contains provisions to permit this, and the constitutional angles are being smacked around like a tetherball. There seems to be a widespread assumption that because the law permits on-the-spot testing for impairment, such testing must be a practically possible thing; a solved problem.

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Don’t count on it. There is no shortage of hustling inventors of roadside measurement devices for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), pot’s main mind-altering ingredient, in saliva. “Oral fluid” (OF) testing is agreed to be the best chance for a practical breathalyzer-type device to test for drug impairment. Cops, whose love for unlawful strip-searches is well documented, would love to have you pee on command while they watch. But saliva represents very recent drug use better than urine anyway — in theory.