CARIBOU, Maine — With recreational marijuana now legal in Maine, police across the state are learning how to detect impaired driving related to the drug.
Much like with alcohol, Mainers can use pot in their own homes, but potentially face legal repercussions if they enter public or drive a vehicle while significantly impaired. Unlike the legal limit of 0.08 percent with alcohol, there is currently no standard of intoxication set for marijuana, which makes the task of penalizing stoned drivers a complicated one.
Caribou Police Chief Michael Gahagan says the only way for his department to truly determine if one is high on pot is to issue a blood test, send it out, and wait for the results in roughly 15 days.
Gahagan says Officer Chad Cochran has been specifically trained to detect numerous types of impairments within a suspect, adding that “all officers are trained in detecting impairment, it’s just a matter of articulating the specific type of impairment in our prosecution.”
For the time being, the police department is going to rely on officer observation along with the blood test until a standard of intoxication is set. Gahagan says this involves looking out for erratic driving, individuals who have trouble standing up, glassy eyes, and irregular speech.
Shortly after Maine voters decided to legalize marijuana, Gahagan and other police officers attended a full day of training with a prosecutor from Denver, Colorado where recreational pot was legalized in 2014. The session was held in Augusta’s Public Safety building and officers were told what they should know, what they will see, and how to handle it.
“We were taught what the know when we encounter it,” Gahagan said, “because it is something we’re going to encounter.”
The Denver prosecutor, according to Gahagan, is holding training sessions related to this matter across the state in both Bangor and Portland.
As of March 30, the Chief was happy to report that Caribou PD has not encountered any marijuana-related offenses in the city.
Moving forward, Gahagan says all officers are going to undergo special training to help them get better acquainted with detecting the effects of smoking or otherwise ingesting marijuana.
