NCJ Number
162193
Journal
Gazette Volume: 58 Issue: 3 Dated: (March 1996) Pages: 10-13
Date Published
1996
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article describes a program designed by the Los Angeles Police Department to train their officers to recognize and identify drugs that impair persons operating motor vehicles.
Abstract
In the early 1970s, two police sergeants from the Los Angeles Police Department, in consultation with medical personnel and other experts, discovered that most of the drugs which impair a person's ability to safely operate a motor vehicle could be separated into seven distinct categories, each with distinctive effects on the body: (1) central nervous system depressants; (2) central nervous system stimulants; (3) hallucinogens; (4) phencyclidine; (5) narcotic analgesics; (6) inhalants; and (7) cannabis. The officers developed a Symptomatology Chart that could identify and explain in court which drug or drugs were impairing a person at the time of contact with the police. The Drug Recognition Expert program does work and has a proven track record in the United States since the early 1980s. It does, however, require the support of the law enforcement community and the criminal justice system as a whole to make it as effective in Canada.