The legalization of marijuana is just 12-days away and Windsor Police are ready to combat impaired drivers.
Constable Shane Miles told AM 800's The Lynn Martin show, thanks to a provincial initiative, more officers are being trained then ever to conduct the "Standardized Field Sobriety Test" to determine if a driver is high.
Constable Shane Miles says the SFST is rigorous and takes about an hour.
"That includes three different tests where an officer will look into your eyes, have them move side to side, the next test would involve an individual walking down a line and walk back. Again were looking for certain cues and clues during that process. And the final process would be a person standing at the roadside with one leg up balancing while counting."
Constable Shane Miles says more officers than ever are being trained to look for signs of impaired driving.
"That evaluator would conduct a series of tests that take about an hour in which they measure physiologial responses and again conduct some more pyscho physical or divided attention tests, making the mind and body do two things at once. And as a result of that test, that officer will form the opinion that the individual is impaired, potentially, by a certain category of drug."
Constable Shane Miles says driving high will be treated the same as alcohol.
"We have to remember that impairment occurs in the mind and then shows itself in the body. And while driving there is a number of tasks that we have to conduct ourselves looking down the road, judging distances, operating controls on our cars. When we consume alcohol or impair ourselves with drugs, our mind is incapable of doing those multitude of tasks."
As police warn about the dangers of marijuana use and getting behind the wheel, it seems driving high is nothing new hundreds of thousands of Ontarians.
A new study by the Canadian Automobile Association finds almost two-million Ontario residents have, at some point, driven after smoking pot.
The CAA survey also found a little over half feel they drive WORSE when high than when sober.