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Five years after the federal government amended the Criminal Code to give police new tools to go after drug-impaired drivers, the RCMP has acknowledged in an internal report that support from Crown prosecutors “varies across Canada” and getting charges to stick has been a challenge.

One problem is a lack of expert witnesses who can be called upon to validate the methods used by police to detect and evaluate suspected drug-impaired drivers, says the report, which was obtained under access-to-information laws. There’s also limited data collection and monitoring of cases nationally to see what works and what doesn’t work.

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The advocacy group, Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada, has said the so-called Drug Recognition Expert program should be abandoned and replaced with a program of random roadside drug screenings, similar to those used in Australia and some parts of Europe.

But in an email, RCMP spokesman Sgt. Greg Cox said the current program has shown it can make a difference and there are no plans to discontinue it.