By Glenn Hicks

Police ready for cannabis legalization but P.A.retailers need more time.

Oct 16, 2018 | 5:00 PM

The Prince Albert Police Service says officers will be ready for the legalization of cannabis tomorrow but admit they’re still going to be learning and would have preferred more time to prepare.

Meanwhile, the city’s two licensed retailers will not be open for business on the big day and said they would still need a number of weeks to be ready to open their doors.

Acting Police Chief Jon Bergen told paNOW his officers were up to speed on various training.

“Members have been trained on two different levels: courses on legalization changes and a secondary course on enforcement,” Bergen said. “It’s not specifically important to retrain our staff on how to identify an impaired driver either with alcohol or drugs; we do that well now.”

The changes to the legislation and enforcement include the use of a saliva testing apparatus that can help detect levels of THC in the bloodstream should officers deem it necessary to escalate their testing at the roadside. However, Bergen acknowledged there were some challenges with the device, which is about the size of a small household coffee machine. He said it could only operate accurately within a certain temperature range and the saliva gauge may need to be in the subject’s mouth for a number of minutes. He said that could pose issues with people who may be impaired.

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“We’re still learning, we have staff being trained on it this month, and once we know more and how that looks, we’ll understand it better,” he said. “We’d always appreciate more time, but we are ready.”

In a statement in advance of tomorrow’s legalization, Saskatchewan RCMP said they had increased capacity in numerous areas, such as prevention and engagement, intelligence, and training to ensure officers are prepared. The statement added Saskatchewan RCMP had trained over 100 officers in the administration of the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFSTs) and were on track to have more than 100 Drug Recognition Evaluators (DREs) by the end of 2019. Officers were also being trained on the Oral Fluid Device (OFD) as part of the limited, strategic roll-out of these devices, the RCMP said.

Rob King, a spokesman for RCMP in Saskatchewan told paNOW he did not anticipate anything different in terms of police deployment or planned activity for the change-over to legal cannabis use as of midnight.

“It’ll be business as usual and we don’t anticipate any type of spike of criminal activity because it’s the first day,” he said. “It’ll be a learning curve and education for everyone as we go along for the next few weeks and months.” 

While police said they were ready, the successful bidders for the cannabis retail permits in Prince Albert are not. It remains to be seen which of the two businesses will open their doors first. Both Prairie Cannabis, which will be located at 180 17th St. W. and Canaba Cannabis, which will operate on 3332 Second Ave.W. told paNOW they needed a few more weeks to get their stores ready. Both owner-operators said the timeframe for getting ready had been tight.

Canaba Cannabis said they would be open “early November” while Prairie Cannabis said they would be ready in “about a month.”

The delay in opening of the P.A. pot shops wasn’t lost on Mayor Greg Dionne when asked about policy surrounding marijuana use for city staff.

“We want our employees to be safe and come to work safe and that policy will be rolled out Wednesday,” he said. “But we’ll be following a lot more because I don’t think there’ll be much supply in the first month.”

With files from Charlene Tebbutt

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow