While driving impaired from marijuana has been keeping pace with those who have been caught drinking alcohol and driving, Barrie police say they are going to catch you either way this holiday season.
There have been three marijuana-impaired arrests dating back to Oct. 17, the day recreational cannabis use was legalized.
Barrie police corporate communications co-ordinator Peter Leon told BarrieToday that police will use the tools at their disposal to catch the law-breakers.
“Two of the three arrests resulted from RIDE and a combination of standardized field sobriety testing and a drug recognition evaluator were utilized to confirm the impairment by drug,” Leon said.
There were no other charges associated to the investigations involving the drug.
To put the charges into perspective, there have been two alcohol-impaired arrests as well as a pair of three-day suspensions since the city police department's festive RIDE program started on Nov. 16. Spotchecks will continue throughout the holiday season.
Leon says there is no excuse for poor decisions and police will be watching.
“At the end of the day, it comes down to making the right choices,” he said. “Using recreational cannabis and driving or drinking and driving are the wrong choices, especially given the fact that people have a multitude of options available to them that don’t require them to get behind the wheel after they have used cannabis or consumed alcohol.
"If they make the wrong choice, it could be something that they pay for years to come or for a lifetime."
