HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2016-11-30, Page 27Wednesday, November 30, 2016 • Huron Expositor 27
Medpot user says she was wrongfully charged with DUI
CONTINUED FROM > PAGE 26
Dr. Danial Schecter, medi-
cal director and co-founder
of the Cannabinoid Medical
Clinic in Toronto and the
doctor who prescribed med-
ical cannabis for Birks, con-
firmed that this is what he
tells his patients.
"We tell our patients that it
is not recommended to drive
for at least four hours after
inhaling cannabis and for
eight hours if they feel
'euphoria' or have ingested
(instead of inhaled) canna-
bis," he wrote to The Signal
Star in an email.
Birks says that the police
officer built a case against
her once she told him that
she was a medical marijuana
user.
"As soon as he found out I
had a prescription for medi-
cal marijuana he pricked my
finger right then and there,"
she said.
However, the police dis-
closure on Birks' case,
which Birks gave to The Sig-
nal Star, does not mention
that a sobriety test was per-
formed at the scene of the
accident.
There are many other dis-
crepancies between the
court document and the
account Birks has given The
Signal Star.
The disclosure also quotes
Birks as telling the officer
that she did not have any-
thing to drink that day. She
says that's incorrect. She told
The Signal Star that she
answered the officer saying
she had had a cooler several
hours before driving during
lunch that day.
Also, Birks asserts that she
required the assistance of
the officer and a witness to
open her door to exit the
vehicle following the acci-
dent while the disclosure
states she was already free of
the car when the OPP
arrived.
The officer's notes also say
she had appeared wobbly
and her speech was "slow,
slurred, deliberate" and with
a "blank glazed stare in her
eyes" as reasons to suggest
Birks was under the influ-
ence of a narcotic. Birks
accounts for those signs of
impairment as having to do
with her wearing heeled san-
dals in a muddy area, suffer-
ing from symptoms of shock,
concussion and pain in her
back and from ill-fitting
dentures.
She said she had "great
difficulty" standing because
of the conditions of the field,
and when paramedics
arrived they suggested she
go to a hospital due to the
possibly that she might have
a concussion. She declined
the paramedics' suggestion
because she had her pets
back in Guelph waiting for
her, though she did agree
that if her symptoms wors-
ened she'd go to the hospital
as they suggested.
"So the police officer
heard all this," she asserts.
Discrepancies aside, the
issue comes down to
whether she was impaired
at the time of the
accident.
Following her arrest,
Birks was taken to the OPP
Walkerton detachment
where she was required to
give a urine sample to a
drug recognition expert,
who said "that there were
grounds for Impaired by
Drug [charge]," reads the
disclosure.
According to Dr. Schecter,
this urine test is only qualita-
tive and not quantitative,
"which means that it is
impossible to know how
much cannabis is in your
system."
In other words, it can
register the presence of
cannabis in one's system,
but not the quantity,
which is a problem for
medical marijuana users
who take the drug fre-
quently enough for it to
always be present.
"Your urine drug screen
can be positive for days or
weeks after having last con-
sumed cannabis, depending
on how regularly the patient
is using cannabis," Dr.
Schecter wrote. "Even blood
work is difficult to interpret
as there is no standard num-
ber at which patients are
considered 'impaired.' "
The Walkerton crown
attorney did not return The
Signal Star's request for
comment.
Birks says that she was
treated well by the arresting
officer until she told him she
was a medical marijuana
user.
"His demure and behav-
iour to me completely
changed," she said. "Treated
me like a perp, didn't take
anything I said to him about
my condition into
consideration."
At the police station she
said she was required to per-
form a sobriety test, which
she failed.
"I was extremely wobbly,"
she said. "I had shooting
pains from the one area of
the vertebrae where the disk
is almost completely gone
and I was in a tremendous
amount of pain so I was hav-
ing difficulty in standing up,
and every time I went to take
a step I was scared my back
would give out"
She said she told the
officers at the detachment
about her medical condi-
tions, but "they didn't
care."
She was then put into a
cell, where, she asserts,
she began to suffer more
acutely.
"When I got in there I
started really having prob-
lems. I would try and get up
and walk and my back
would give out and I would
fall and I fell into the steel
door three times and I
couldn't get my self back
up," she said.
She said she lay on the
floor sobbing from pain,
and only after the first time
that she collapsed into the
door did an officer come
check on her, but he did
not provide any
assistance.
She was released into the
custody of her friend the fol-
lowing morning.
She has been charged a
$1,000 fine for the offence
and a year's suspension to
her license.
She will have a criminal
conviction if found guilty.
But she says she is fight-
ing it.
However, Legal Aid
Ontario has informed her
6. ea orthhuronex ' ositor.co
that she is ineligible for
legal assistance because
she is not facing incarcer-
ation if convicted.
Birks is also poor, living
on disability and she says
she can neither pay the
$1,000 fine or the fees of a
lawyer.
If she is convicted, she
said the charge would haunt
her for longer than the one-
year suspension.
"It will affect my life for
the rest of my life," she
said. "And I wasn't
impaired and the accident
was not cause by my ina-
bility to operate that vehi-
cle safely."
She says the charge will
prevent her from driving
for the foreseeable future
because she won't be able
to afford the insurance.
According to Paul Wett-
laufer, sales manager at
Excalibur Insurance in
Mitchell, the criminal
conviction could affect
her for a minimum of six
years.
If convicted she will be
dropped by her current
insurer and have to go to
what is called a non-stand-
ard insurance company and
though rates vary these com-
panies tend to have a higher
base rate with a 50 per cent
surcharge.
The tool they use to
measure what someone
should pay for insurance
is a driver's abstract of
their record.
This abstract will con-
tain a person's impaired
conviction for three years,
he said.
However, the conviction
comes with a suspension,
which must be revealed to
the insurance company
for the next six years.
"There are two things at
play in an impaired driving
conviction: The conviction
itself, which stays with you
for three years, and the sus-
pension of your driver's
license," he said.
This, Birks said, will
prevent her from driving,
which will greatly restrict
her independence.
"I'm extremely upset and
I'm not going to have my life
totally disrupted by some-
thing that is not true," she
said.
What was supposed to
have been a new start has
now left her life in "limbo,"
she said.
Without the ability to
drive, she must rely upon
friends and taxis services for
getting groceries and her
medicine and she says she
has been forced to become
something of a "hermit."
"I can't move forward
with my life here until this
is resolved in my favour,"
she said.
Her next and fourth court
appearance is Dec. 7.
"This has terribly dis-
rupted my life beyond
belief," she said. 'And I think
it should be thrown out
because it is a complete
waste of tax payer money."
She says she is currently
considering taking legal
action against the OPP for
how she was treated under
their care.
THANK YOU
from
The Seaforth Lions Club
to
•A11 parade participants
• The Municipality of Huron East
for their financial support.
• Seaforth Legion for hosting
Santa's visit
The Santa Claus parade was a
great community effort.
Tree of Lights
Let the Spirit of Christmas Shine by
Giving a "Gift of Light"
Sunday, December 4th, 2016
6:30 p.m.
Join us at the Seaforth Community Hospital
for the Lighting Ceremony at 7:OOpm
Christmas Entertainment
Refreshments
Sponsored by
Seaforth Community Hosptial Auxiliary
Tickets available from
Auxiliary Members and in the Gift Shop