A 20-year-old Gloucester man who allegedly told cops he was driving high on weed when he slammed his car into the back of a packed school bus yesterday morning wasn’t charged with being stoned behind the wheel because authorities couldn’t immediately prove he was impaired, raising concerns that law enforcement doesn’t have the tools to deal with newly legal marijuana use.
It’s a public safety nightmare that law enforcement officials and legislators warned about before recreational pot was legalized in the Bay State.
“It was only a matter of time before this was going to occur somewhere,” Massachusetts Association of the Chiefs of Police Executive Director Mark Leahy said of yesterday’s crash.
“The problem we have is the science, in terms of being able to detect the level of THC in the system, the science hasn’t caught up with reality,” said Leahy. “So we have no objective, quantifiable way to measure THC like we do with the presence of alcohol in the blood stream.”
Gloucester cops responded to a 7:20 a.m. crash at the intersection of Essex Avenue and Welch Lane involving a Toyota Corolla and a school bus carrying dozens of kids to O’Malley Innovation Middle School. They spoke with the driver of the sedan, Caleb M. Andersen, who they say reeked of marijuana and admitted to smoking a blunt prior to the accident. The inside of his car, police said, also smelled of marijuana smoke.
Police noted that during the booking process, Andersen would “stare off into nowhere with a blank expression until he was redirected,” and the cop car they drove him to the station in smelled like marijuana after he got out.
After getting checked out for minor injuries at nearby Addison Gilbert Hospital, Andersen was arraigned in Gloucester District Court on charges of driving with a suspended license and negligent operation.
But he was not charged with driving under the influence of marijuana because drug tests conducted at the police station that would show he was driving impaired were not immediately available. Leahy said his group is pushing a legislative committee to establish regulations and fund technology that would immediately identify stoned drivers, charge them and get them off the road.
Andersen is due back in court Jan. 9 for a pretrial hearing. He may face an additional charge of driving while high on pot, police say.
Republican state Rep. Brad Jones said lawmakers are looking at ways to fix the law as it relates to driving while stoned.
“I think that will be a big part of the discussion next year. That’s one of the frustrating things with the ballot question, and the timeline to implement it,” Jones said. “It’s more proof to the argument that the ballot question was not well drafted.”
All 36 middle school students and the bus driver escaped injury, police said.
“This could have been much worse, we’re thankful that no kids were injured,” Interim Gloucester police Chief John McCarthy told the Herald. “Given the season, it’s a blessing that no kids were hurt.”
Gloucester School Superintendent Richard Safier said all of the students on the bus were taken to Addison Gilbert Hospital where they were met by their parents.
He said he hopes that police across the state will have the powers they need to quickly identify people who are driving while impaired by pot.
“It’s a real problem,” Safier said. “If someone is impaired and they’re going to place themselves and others at risk, there needs to be viable measures to prevent them from doing so if they’re going to cause harm.”
