public safety: a real buzz kill

West Coast drug jokes aside, BC Ferries has to take action

The Vancouver Sun

Thursday, October 18, 2007

By Vaughn Palmer, Sun Provincial Affairs Columnist

VICTORIA --The statement from the National Transportation Safety Board seemed to confirm the worst stereotypes about the drug-addled West Coast.

"There is strong evidence of regular use of cannabis by crews on board the Queen of the North," the board said Wednesday in an official statement of concern.

"The investigation revealed that the Queen of the North crew members who were regularly using cannabis showed insufficient awareness of its impact on fitness for duty."

Insufficient awareness? Isn't that the whole point of consuming Mother Nature's giggle weed? Regular users seek to lower their awareness of any number of pesky realities.

The jokes, needless to say, were not long in coming.

"Welcome aboard the Queen of Mary Jane. Be sure to visit our gift shop, selling Zig Zag papers and copies of High Times magazine, or relax in our Acapulco gold lounge, with your own individual hookah. Three sheets to the wind or eight miles high? The choice is yours."

By the time BC Ferries president David Hahn responded to the safety board, reporters were swapping Cheech and Chong routines and hoping that Hahn could be lured into a reenactment of that comedy duo's most notorious routine.

Hahn: "It's Dave. I'm here to comment." Media: "Dave's not here." Hahn: "No, I'm Dave." Media: "Dave's not here." And so on.

Cheap laughs aside, there was a darkly serious side to the prospect of drug use aboard the Queen of the North.

The board hastened to say that there was "no evidence" of impairment being a factor in the wreck of the ill-fated ferry.

Sure enough. No one was tested for drugs or alcohol, so "no evidence."

But the board was clearly disturbed by what it did discover during confidential interviews with crew members.

"The board considers the use of cannabis by crews of vessels to be an unsafe condition, one that could lead to a serious accident," the official letter of concern said.

Though members of the marijuana lobby might insist their drug of choice is no more dangerous than the ones sold in government liquor stores, the board is concerned that cannabis lingers longer in the system than booze.

"Impairment may last 24 hours," the board says, quoting authoritative sources. Moreover, "cannabis users are not normally aware of the longer-term effects."

The risk is heightened on the northern ferry routes because vessels are staffed on a long-term basis. One crew serves on board for up to two weeks. The second crew rests back at home port.

Members of the working crew are off-duty only for relatively brief periods. Even when sleeping in their cabins, they are subject to being called to their posts in an emergency.

"As the effects of cannabis can last for 24 hours, there is risk that performance will be diminished in the next shift or during their rest period should users be called for emergency duties," the safety board wrote.

"Any impairment of employees who perform safety-critical tasks in the transportation industry is a clear risk to safety."

BC Ferries has a zero tolerance policy toward use of alcohol or mood-altering drugs.

On the northern service, the policy applies to "all hours on duty or off duty from the time an employee joins the ship until release for rest days."

With a strict policy in place, you'd think that supervisors would have cracked down on any instance of drug abuse.

But the board found "some evidence to suggest that not all senior crew members aboard the Queen of the North consistently took sufficient action to ensure the company's no-tolerance policy was strictly adhered to."

No wonder the board directed BC Ferries to "address the issue without delay."

Review the effectiveness of the existing policy.

See how it needs to be strengthened.

Determine if this sort of thing is going on with other crews and other vessels in the fleet.

Then advise the board of "measures taken to ensure that the public and the environment are not placed at risk by crews whose performance has been impaired."

In response, Hahn issued a call for the federal authorities to clear the way for all ferry operators "to conduct mandatory drug and alcohol testing on all employees in safety sensitive positions."

The "only proven method of ensuring protection of the travelling public," according to the Ferries boss.

Push him, he pushes back. But while Hahn waits for a green light on testing, he also needs to respond decisively to the concerns raised by the safety board, particularly regarding supervisors who turn a blind eye to drug abuse.

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In the interests of full disclosure, I ought to note that, many years ago, I worked on the BC Ferries northern run. But I did not inhale.