Drinking, Drugs and Driving: Crimes

If you drive after drinking or using drugs you might be committing several crimes. These crimes also apply to driving a boat, train or motorcycle or flying a plane.

Driving with more than the legal limit of alcohol in your blood

It’s a crime to drive with a blood-alcohol level of .08 or more. This means having 80 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood or more.

You can be accused of this crime when you reach or surpass this blood-alcohol level, even if you don’t show any sign of being drunk or unfit to drive.

Driving with more than the legal limit of drugs in your blood

It’s also a crime to drive after taking drugs.

For most drugs, any detectable amount in your blood is enough to be a crime. This is the case with cocaine or methamphetamines, for example. There’s an exception for GHB (sometimes called the “date-rape drug”), for which the legally permissible limit is 5 mg per liter of blood.

There are special rules for cannabis (pot). The level of THC in your blood determines whether you’ve committed a crime. THC is the chemical in cannabis that produces intoxication (the “high”).

There are two separate crimes depending on how intoxicated you are:

• driving with 5 nanograms or more of THC in a millilitre of blood (5ng/ml)
• driving with 2 or more but less than 5 nanograms of THC in a millilitre of blood

The punishments for these crimes are different.

Driving after taking a combination of drugs and alcohol

It’s a crime to drive after taking a combination of drugs and alcohol if you have both:

• 50 mg or more of alcohol in 100 ml of blood (0.05),
• 2.5 nanograms or more of THC in one millilitre of blood.

Driving while impaired by alcohol, drugs or both

The crime of impaired driving is driving when your ability to drive is decreased because of alcohol, drugs or both. This also includes taking medications that may impair your ability to drive.

For this crime, the amount of alcohol or drugs in your system is not the deciding factor: it’s your ability to drive that matters.

So, you might have only 50 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood and still be unfit to drive. The same applies to the amount of drugs you’ve taken. Fatigue and stress combined with alcohol or drugs can reduce your ability to drive to the point that driving is a crime.

Sobering up in a parked car

Even if you’re not driving the car, you can still be accused of impaired driving or driving with more than the legal limit of alcohol or drugs in your blood.  

It doesn’t matter whether your car is parked or you’re driving. If you’re sitting in a parked car while impaired and you have the capacity to put the car in motion, you can be accused of another crime. This is known as having the care or control of a car.

Here are some things a judge can consider when deciding whether you have the care or control of a car:

• Did you have the keys?
• Could you have easily gotten the keys?
• Did you turn on the radio or the heat?
• Was your seat belt fastened?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, a judge might decide that you had real control of the car. This is a crime, even if you just wanted to sleep in the car.

The law says that sitting in the driver’s seat is proof of care or control. To defend yourself, you must prove that:

• you had no intention of starting the car and that
• your behaviour didn’t put anyone or any property at risk.

Refusing a breath sample or a test is also a serious a crime

Police officers may ask you to take tests to determine whether alcohol or drugs are impairing your driving ability.

• give a breath or saliva sample
• do physical coordination tests requested by a police officer
• have a blood sample taken
• go with a police officer to have a sample taken

An example of a good excuse would be that the police officers don’t have the approved screening device with them when they ask you to give a breath sample.

If you are found guilty of this crime, you can receive the same fine or prison sentence as if you are found guilty of impaired driving or driving with more than the legal limit of alcohol or drugs in your blood.

Also, your driver’s licence can be suspended for a longer period than if you were found guilty of impaired driving.