Legal pot could cost WRPS up to $3.79M, includes training and equipment

After almost 100 years of prohibition, recreational pot will soon be legal across Canada – and that has our local police service getting ready.

The federal government has already announced it will provide $274-million to support law enforcement with implementation of legalization and regulations this year.

The estimated range of costs for the Waterloo Regional Police Service is between $2.6-million and $3.79-million – and that’s based on a Federation of Canadian Municipalities study.

WRPS Chief Bryan Larkin says the money will help cover training, equipment, and infrastructure.

“The over $3-million is a preliminary estimate – and also includes our resource time. I truly believe a lot of these costs are at the front-end, and we’ll see it level itself out as we move forward.”

Larkin says there are two big pieces around enforcing marijuana legalization – road safety and specialized training.

“We’ve been working very hard over the last couple of years preparing – so we have 370 front-line police officers who are trained in Standardized Field Sobriety Tests. What that means is they have the skill-set at the roadside to recognize impairment beyond alcohol – meaning they can recognize symptoms that are related to drug-use, administer some physical testing, and that gives them the ability to request a Drug Recognition Expert to come to the scene.”

Currently, a dozen local officers have received ‘D.R.E.’ training – and WRPS say their goal is to have around 20 more by the end of 2018.

When it comes to policing challenges ahead of legalization, Larkin says there are a few.

One of the big ones is there’s still no approved roadside screening device for marijuana impairment here in Ontario.

“We know that Public Safety Canada has tested a number across the province – and that they’re very close to announcing an approved device in the next month or two. The device right now that we’ve seen is around testing for the positive sampling of cannabis, so it’s a mouth swab. We would still need potential blood tests for levels though, and the Canadian Chiefs are working hard with Public Safety on this. Once we get a device – it’ll then take us 15 weeks to train all of our front-line officers.”

Local police will also need to increase RIDE checks, and make sure all WRPS members are fully educated on the rules.

“We need to get everybody educated on Bill C-45 – which is the federal Cannabis Act. There’s also Bill C-46 – which is the amendment to the criminal code, which includes all the driving offences. Then of course – there’s the Provincial Cannabis Act, which will make it illegal to stand at a street corner and smoke a joint, as that will be a ticketing offence.”

Police have been adamant that their main concerns around legalized pot are the effects on our roadways and public safety.

However, Larkin says he’s not expecting chaos.

“I think we’re naive to think that people aren’t consuming cannabis now and driving vehicles – I think it happens, and our members just haven’t been trained appropriately to detect it. I think we’re in a better place now as we’ve been very proactive – but the reality is, I’m not anticipating chaos. What we’ve seen from other jurisdictions is that collision rates go up slightly, and some impacts to public safety .. but we’re anticipating the major demand on service will be confusion issues like neighbours concerned about how many plants they can grow, or seeing someone smoking pot in their backyard.”

The end of pot prohibition will also create brand new issues for WRPS – like what steps they take if any live marijuana plants are confiscated for an investigation.

“If we seize live plants – will we be able to photograph them and submit them for evidence or destruction? And if these plants are deemed legal – how do we return or maintain them? So those are some of the mechanical challenges we’re also facing. I’ve always referred to the legalization of cannabis as a change-management process. Public policy will grow, public policy will change, and we’re gonna learn along the way. We can’t possibly have all the answers, and in fairness to our government – they can’t possibly have all the answers yet either.”

Larkin adds that dialogue and education are key when it comes to preparation.

“Canada still has the largest amount of cannabis-use among young people from the age of 12 to 24. So when it becomes legal, the person between 12 to 17 .. it’ll still be unlawful, illegal, and a ticketing offence. The Ontario Chiefs lobbied very hard for a diversion mechanism – so rather than issue a ticket, the officer could divert the young person to a program that teaches about long-term health impacts. So we need to think hard about who we’re gonna educate, and how we’re going to do that.”

He says they also need to have a larger conversation with partners around priorities.

“I don’t want to deter from the fact that we still need to be focused on illicit drugs like opioids or cocaine. Yes, we’ll deal with cannabis issues – but I think we need to balance it, and place it in line with the rest of our priorities.”

From a leadership perspective, and as an organization – their focus remains committed to reducing the amount of opioid-related deaths in our community.

“That has to be our focus, we continue to have people die from opioid-use – and I think we’ll be able to balance road safety, which is really the major cannabis piece,” says Larkin.

Marijuana was originally expected to be fully legal across Canada by July of 2018 – but that’s now been delayed.

The proposed price is around $10 a gram, with the federal-provincial excise tax capped at 10 per cent per $1 per gram.

Despite these historical changes, pot activists across the country continue to criticize the Trudeau government’s proposed cannabis legislation – saying the plan will negatively effect consumers, producers, and create another monopoly in Ontario.

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