Off-duty Sarnia police officers will be allowed to use recreational pot once it becomes legal.
Police Chief Norm Hansen said information will be more clear when the police service unveils an updated policy next week.
However, Hansen said they've only tweaked their current policy with regards to officers using marijuana while off duty.
"Obviously officers can't show up with alcohol in their system, and there's no difference [with marijuana], we treat it the same. If an officer showed up now physically impaired by drug, we would deal with it right there," said Hansen. "We've also had consultation with our associations that we're not going to drop any big surprise labour wise on people, and I think you're going to see that it's just going to be pretty much status quo. [For officers], it's going to be "must be fit for duty" and not be impaired."
Toronto police officers will be barred from using cannabis within 28 days of a shift, and in Calgary, the majority of officers will be restricted from using marijuana at any time.
Hansen said the Sarnia Police Service likely isn't heading in the direction of zero-tolerance.
"I don't think that we'd be very wise to try and enforce that. If a substance is legal, it's legal. Whether I agree with it being legal or not doesn't matter," he said.
Hansen also said officers could have a hard time making cannabis charges stick, noting the service didn't order any of the approved roadside drug-testing devices because they have issues, including not working in cold weather.
"If you go back to when impaired driving by alcohol laws got more strict, every single arrest we made was challenged in court. It went right through until it was case law, and you're going to see that for sure for drug enforcement, and drug-impaired driving," he said.
Hansen said the Sarnia Police Service has three drug recognition experts to help enforce marijuana legislation once recreational pot becomes legal October 17.
