With less than two weeks before pot is legalized, it’s still unclear exactly how police will enforce the new drug-impaired driving laws, said senior government officials on Friday.

To prepare for pot becoming legal on Oct. 17, the government revamped the country’s laws by: creating new criminal offences for driving while impaired by drugs; allowing police to use new screening equipment to detect drug use; and strengthening the legal framework to help police catch people who use drugs while driving.

The feds are spending $274 million on law enforcement and border efforts to deter drug-impaired driving and enforce the new laws.

They’re also giving $81 million to the provinces and territories for training, and have reached agreements with 11 of 13 jurisdictions. The two remaining provinces or territories, which officials wouldn’t name on Friday, can’t access the funding yet. Officials said these agreements are coming “soon.”

[READ MORE: NDP to table bill pardoning Canadians with pot convictions]

Here’s how police are cracking down on people who break the law, and how that will change under the new legislation in December.

At the moment, if a police officer stops a driver and suspects he’s impaired by drugs — whether by smelling them or observing the driver’s red eyes — she’ll put him through three sobriety tests: an eye test, a one-leg stand, and a walk and turn. (Officers require training on how to conduct these tests.) If the officer concludes the driver is impaired, she can arrest him.

At the police station, another officer would call a drug-recognition expert and have her run the driver through a 12-step process designed to detect impairment. If she thinks the driver is impaired, she’ll demand a urine sample. That sample will be sent to a lab for analysis, and if the concentration of drugs determines impairment, the driver will be charged.

In December, new legislation will allow cops to conduct roadside saliva tests using a device that’s been approved by the Attorney General of Canada to detect if someone has consumed either cannabis or cocaine. If the test indicates the driver is impaired, he can be arrested. Police will then require a blood sample, which is sent to a lab.

That blood test won’t be administered by the RCMP, said a senior official with the Mounties who provided information as part of a panel of government officials who were speaking on condition that their quotes not be attributed directly. “I’m not aware of any police that are looking at drawing blood,” he said.

Instead, the blood can be drawn at a hospital or a police station, and under the supervision of someone who’s contracted by police and is qualified, such as a nurse.

Officials couldn’t say for sure which detachments in Canada have someone capable of taking blood.

“I was told … the Calgary and Edmonton police services already have people in place to take blood samples, and they’ll be at the police station,” said a senior official with the department of Justice. “I only know this very coincidentally. It may be the same case in Montreal, or Quebec, or elsewhere in Canada, I don’t know.”

If the test shows the driver was impaired by drugs, he is charged.

[READ MORE: NDP amnesty bill for pot convictions faces uphill battle]

The period of time between someone being arrested under suspicion of drug-impaired driving and when he’s released from police custody is not set. The senior RCMP official said the driver isn’t let go until police believe he’s capable of “taking care of himself.” He could also be released into someone else’s care.

Drivers impaired by drugs will be charged with one of three offences.

The first is a summary conviction for having two to five nanograms (one billionth of a gram) of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) per millilitre of blood. The second is a hybrid offence for more than five nanograms of THC per millilitre of blood, or more than five milligrams of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) per litre of blood, or for any detectable level of LSD, ketamine, PCP, magic mushrooms, cocaine, heroine or methamphetamine. The third is a hybrid offence for driving with a combination of drugs and alcohol, for which someone can be charged if he’s found to have 2.5 nanograms of THC per millilitre of blood, combined with 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.

The penalties for hybrid offences are the same as those for a drinking-and-driving conviction: a $1,000 minimum fine for the first offence, a 30-day jail sentence for the second, and a 120-day jail sentence for a third offence.

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