Wrongful Arrest for Cannabis – Cannabis | weed | marijuana

Wrongful arrest for cannabis is not uncommon. A Staten Island police officer continued to plant cannabis in people’s cars despite the NYPD clearing him of any wrongdoing.

In Canada, police use a variety of tests to determine if your ability to drive is “impaired” by cannabis.

But of course, as anyone can figure out in three seconds of research, THC binds to your fat cells. So you could be smoking a joint in July and failing a urine test in September.

Suppose you are devastated after a car accident. Who wouldn’t? Shock and head injury symptoms can lead to balance issues, fumbling, slurred speech, and general “brain fog.”

But suppose the police notice this and instead of concluding that you’re in shock, they demand an on-site sobriety test, which you fail, and then arrest you.

Sounds far fetched? Well, that’s what happened to Pam Staples-Wilkinson in March 2021.

What happened

Pam Staples-Wilkinson was the victim of a wrongful arrest because police were unable to distinguish shock from cannabis-related impairment.

Police asked Pam to complete a three-step test that included walking, a one-legged stand and a simple eye test.

On March 16, 2021, the same night of her car accident, police decided to arrest her on suspicion of being unfit to drive.

The police took them to their headquarters. A “drug expert” confirmed her disability. Because she failed two physical tests, they required Pam to provide a urine sample.

Pam lost her driver’s license for seven days and had an obstruction driving charge on her record for nine months. Nine months after the accident, the urine samples came back clean.

She had no THC in her system. Police incompetence when it comes to cannabis led to Pam being wrongly arrested.

But imagine if Pam were a connoisseur. Or even an occasional smoker. Your urine test may have been positive. Then where would she be?

Blood samples instead of urine samples

Lawyers and civil rights activists are not happy with the Fredericton Police Force. This wrongful arrest for mistaking shock for cannabis impairment does not bode well for civil rights in Canada.

Proponents suggest police use blood samples instead of urine samples.

A blood sample provides more accurate results about what is in what concentration in the bloodstream.

Proponents also want the federal government to speed up the processing system so victims like Pam don’t face months of criminal charges. Especially when a blood sample can be taken and analyzed in one day.

CBC News reached out to the Fredericton Police Department. Like all of us, they want to know how this could have happened.

How could the police be so stupid as to mistake shock and head injury for cannabis impairment? And not just one officer, but two. The so-called “drug expert” downtown isn’t worth the taxpayer-funded salary.

Of course, Fredericton Police responded that “the matter has been investigated and closed and we will not be pursuing the story”.

How convenient. Too bad the good folks at Fredericton can’t patronize the services of the competition. Imagine a private insurance company acting like this.

First, they screw it up royally. Then the media asked for clarification. And they say, “No thanks, we’re done here.”

And people are wondering why Defund the Police is such a popular meme.

Wrongful arrest for cannabis

How many wrongful arrests have police made because they were unable to distinguish head trauma from cannabis impairment?

If I had been in Pam’s situation, I would have been on the shit creek without a paddle. A urine test would show THC in my fat cells. But would I be impaired at the time of the accident?

This leads to an even deeper question: what exactly is cannabis impairment?

Consider what Professor Iain McGregor, academic director of the Lambert Initiative, told an Australian Senate committee.

“Cannabis and driving is actually a very complicated area. The tendency is to look at it through the prism of alcohol, but there are actually almost diametrically opposite effects for cannabis compared to alcohol. With alcohol, people overestimate themselves and are more likely to take risks. With cannabis, people actually feel impaired.”

Cannabis and driving fall into two categories.

First, we have the connoisseurs using THC how to use caffeine. These people are not a threat, and the police will only discover their “impairment” if they test them (which, we’ve now discovered, is incredibly flawed and untrustworthy).

The second category is the one Professor McGregor refers to. If you haven’t smoked in a few days and get behind the wheel of a car, the impairment you feel will benefit your driving skills.

McGregor says

“When they drive, there are fairly reliable effects like slower speed and greater distance to the vehicle in front. If you then look at the risk of accidents associated with cannabis, it’s moderately increased, but it’s a very, very small statistical effect compared to alcohol and even compared to some prescription drugs that are commonly prescribed like benzodiazepines and sedating antidepressants like mirtazapine.”

Wrongful arrest due to police incompetence regarding cannabis

Pam’s wrongful arrest on cannabis charges is more about police incompetence than whether our detection methods are reliable.

We as a country could solve this problem quickly by getting governments out of the street business.

As Professor Walter Block of Loyola University wrote: “Privatize the ways of vehicle transportation and rely on the new owners to find solutions under the guidance of the profit and loss system of free enterprise.”

Private owners might find that impairment from cannabis has such a “small statistical effect compared to alcohol” that it’s not worth enforcing.