Police Prepare For The Coming Medical Pot Industry

[bobandtorey]

With the influx of medical marijuana coming into Nevada, law enforcement officials are considering added training and technology in dealing with the issue of marijuana-impaired driving.

Colorado, which allows recreational marijuana use for adults, is currently training its law enforcement personnel in spotting marijuana-impaired drivers.

"We will see that here," said Washoe County Sheriff's Lt. Eric Spratley.

"We have a lot of drug recognition experts in our area and a lot down in Clark County, but not everyone is comfortable with recognizing the signs and symptoms of marijuana intoxication," Spratley said.

Officers already deal with marijuana-impaired drivers because of the current black-market sales and consumption of the drug, Spratley said.

Local law enforcement may someday acquire new technology to spot marijuana and opiate — as well as alcohol — intoxication in drivers.

The Dräger Drug Test 5000 is a new mobile drug screening system that uses saliva to test for seven types of the most commonly abused drugs, including marijuana.

Its manufacturers promote the device as a fast drug test that is less invasive than collecting blood or urine, and it could come to Northern Nevada.

"We will get a demonstration in the next few weeks," Spratley said. "Then we will be able to see if it is something we can purchase ourselves or find grant funding for."

The machine would allow officers who stop drivers suspected of driving under the influence of marijuana to do a road-side sobriety test.

The Nevada Legislature must first pass a law to allow its use, just as police now use a breathalyzer to gauge a driver's alcohol intake.

"A good defense attorney may argue the point that while this is good technology, what are the legal constraints against it?' said Reno Police Lt. William Rulla. "The Legislature would need to look at that technology, and if they felt comfortable incorporating it into DUI investigations, then they would need to pass legislation to allow us to use that."

During meetings of the Washoe County Commission and Reno City Council, some elected officials were concerned about the burglaries and thefts from medical marijuana dispensaries and grow houses.

After a fact-finding mission to Colorado to see how that state will police the marijuana industry, Spratley is not overly concerned.

"We are going to look at them (dispensaries) like a pharmacy," he said. "And there are way stronger drugs in pharmacies now, right where you and I live currently. CVS and Walgreens right down the street from my house have stronger drugs than marijuana and they are not getting robbed. They are keeping their stuff secure, dispensed in a professional manner."

Spratley was impressed with the security and technology in Colorado.

"These were Fort Knox-type of dispensaries," he said.

"The owners of these places have so much invested that they don't want their weed stolen," Spratley said. "So they have maximum security, security cameras and security people. They have closed-off doors where you have to show ID, facial recognition. So they have all this stuff and at the end of the day, they don't leave their product in the display case. It's like a jewelry store and it (product) gets packed up and put into these massive safes."

Securities at the indoor grow houses rivaled that of a Nevada casino, Spratley said.

"They had (security) systems that rival our hotel-casinos," Spratley said. "They had crystal clear video, 24/7. There were lots of cameras everywhere, locking mechanisms on everything, safes everywhere. The plants were in different stages in different rooms. But to get into the building — if you made it past all of the locks — you would certainly be on video doing so and it would certainly be a clear picture."

 

 

http://www.rgj.com/story/news/2014/05/18/police-prepare-coming-medical-pot-industry/2229740/