EDMONTON—The Edmonton Police Service has announced they will be purchasing roadside testing devices to measure marijuana consumption, but Calgary’s police are still proceeding with caution.

Edmonton police will be purchasing the Drager DrugTest 5000, a device that measures THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive compound found in cannabis), amphetamines and cocaine levels in saliva. The device was green-lit by the federal government in August.

Cheryl Voordenhout, spokesperson for the Edmonton police, said the police force will be purchasing a number of these devices in Fall 2018 on a trial basis.

“Future purchasing decisions will be based on evaluation of the Drager 5000’s performance in the field as well as development and federal approval of other roadside testing devices in the coming months,” Voordenhout wrote in an email. In an interview, she added there is no date yet on when the devices will be in the hands of Edmonton police.

But the Calgary Police Service isn’t buying in. The Drager DrugTest 5000 is the only approved roadside THC testing device in Canada at the moment, but the force said it’s anticipating several more will soon be approved.

“The Calgary Police Service, in consultation with other law enforcement agencies, will make a selection of one of those devices when they become available,” a CPS spokesperson said.

Earlier this year, Edmonton police announced they would be putting $300,000 aside toward the purchase of drug screening devices, but internal consultations followed as to whether police should purchase the Drager devices, due to a concern that technology may have not yet caught up to cannabis laws.

Resembling a rectangular box, the Drager DrugTest 5000 device has a built-in oral fluid sample collector and a rechargeable analyzer that can provide a reading of the sample on-site. It involves the driver swabbing the inside of their mouth for about 60 seconds, after which, a police officer inserts the test kit into the device, which analyzes the sample in four minutes, according to Drager spokesperson Meg Shannon.

The device was developed in Germany, but was first used in Canada in high-risk work environments like the mining industry, where employers undergo drug testing as a workplace safety measure, Shannon said. The price per unit for the device is $6,000.

Sgt. Rob Davis of the Edmonton Police Service’s Impaired Driving Unit told StarMetro Edmonton that some concerns regarding the device include their limited scope in detecting drugs other than cannabis. Currently, the version of the device available to law enforcement officers can only detect THC and cocaine, according to Shannon.

Edmonton police are currently using standardized field sobriety tests to screen for drug-related impaired driving, which test motorists’ ability to walk and turn in a straight line and stand on one leg, and includes a quick eye exam. If a motorist fails the test, they are then escorted to police headquarters for further examination from a drug recognition expert, and will be required to provide a urine sample.

Voordenhout said Edmonton police will continue training front line members on how to conduct these field tests, and that the devices will act as another tool in the police’s arsenal to tackle drug-impaired driving.

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