More people are driving high, Timmins police warn

With 2022 coming to a close, Timmins police are taking a look at its impaired driving statistics for the year and say more and more people are being charged with driving while high.

Over the last four years, impaired driving charges have gone up with 2021 being one of the worst, when 68 people were charged. So far this year, that number sits at 58 people with a few weeks still to go.

With the legalization of cannabis, police are encountering a significant number of people who've consumed pot and got behind the wheel.

They're also getting a lot more calls from people who find drivers passed out in their vehicles after taking opiates.

“Almost half the situations where we arrest and charge somebody with impaired driving is due to the consumption of a substance other than alcohol,” said police spokesperson Marc Depatie.

“So in a good number of those cases, the person is under the influence of alcohol and (another) substance.”

Const. Chris Gauthier said the other substance is often an opioid.

“It’s not just cannabis,” Gauthier said.

“There’s methamphetamines, there’s opiates, there’s also prescribed medications that people aren’t aware of that it does affect your ability to operate a vehicle.”

Officials said impaired driving is the leading cause of death in Canada among men between the ages of 18 and 24.