Substance use experts on impaired driving laws

The following University of Victoria experts are available to media for perspective on the Canadian government’s changes to drug-impaired driving laws, including the introduction of mandatory alcohol screening, set to come into force on December 18.

Scott MacDonald (CISUR) is a scientist with UVic’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research and a professor in the School of Health Information Science. He can speak to some of the challenges and concerns with this type of impaired-driving law. He has focused his career on research issues in the field of substance use, with empirical studies in a variety of areas including impaired driving laws, the role of substance use in injuries, program evaluation, and cannabis and alcohol policy. (MacDonald is available to media via email at scottmac@uvic.ca. He is unavailable after 1:30 p.m. Tuesday but available all day Wednesday).

• Read MacDonald’s recent blog series on Canada’s proposed cannabis-impaired driving laws

Tim Stockwell (CISUR) is the Director of UVic’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research and a professor in the Department of Psychology. Stockwell can speak to the impacts alcohol-policy changes such as this can have on human behavior and rates of alcohol-related harms. He lived and did research on the topic in Australia during the years when random breath testing laws were introduced there. He has published over 400 academic papers, book chapters and monographs on substance use, including the recent Canadian Substance Use Costs and Harms (CSUCH) report. (Stockwell is available to media by phone at 250-472-5445, or email at timstock@uvic.ca. He will be on-campus Tuesday and working off-campus Wednesday, but still available for phone or on-camera interviews).

• View a video of Tim talking about his research

• To view all Faces of UVic Research videos: www.youtube.com/user/FacesOfUVicResearch