Reports of drug-impaired driving on the rise in Toronto, new StatsCan data shows

Reports of drug-impaired driving are on the rise in Toronto, new Statistics Canada crime data shows.

In its annual report on police-reported crime released on Monday, the agency noted that while the police-reported impaired driving rate is down for a fifth consecutive year across Canada, reports of drug-impaired driving are up — largely driven by a 38 per cent increase in Ontario for 2016.

• Pot charges drop in 2016, Statistics Canada reports

In Toronto, there's been a steady increase for several years, said Rebecca Kong, chief of the policing services program at Statistics Canada.

There were 274 reported drug-impaired driving incidents in Toronto last year, she said, up from 161 in 2015. In 2014, there were 119, and in 2013, there were only 82, Kong told CBC Toronto.

The rise may be due, in part, to "improved detection processes" by police, Kong said.

Speaking to CBC Toronto on Monday, Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash said the service has been part of a trial with the federal government, developing technology to detect drug-impaired driving.

"Our officers are using that technology and they are developing more experience and more skill," he said, adding he doesn't have the latest numbers of drug-impaired driving in the city.

More awareness needed of drug-impaired driving 'risks'

Walter Cavalieri, director of the Canadian Harm Reduction Network, said the increase in the Statistics Canada data is cause for concern. 

"I'm alarmed, quite frankly ... More needs to be done about getting the message out to people — not just young people, but all people — about what the risks [of drug-impaired driving] actually are," he said.

But ​​Benedikt Fischer, a senior scientist with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health's Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, stressed that crime and police data is "rarely ever" a fair representation of societal trends, but rather a reflection of enforcement policies.

"There is definitely increased attention from police on drug-impaired driving, particularly because of the cannabis issue," he said.

However, the University of Toronto professor said there is "no evidence" that more people are actually driving under the influence of drugs. 

Across the country, Statistics Canada said the combined rate of drug-related offences for substances other than cannabis and cocaine — both of which have been on the decline — has been increasing since 2010.

That included a seven per cent increase for 2016 in the number of police-reported offences related to the possession of drugs such as prescription drugs, including opioids such as fentanyl, LSD and so-called "date rape" drugs.