Balancing Act: Ontario driver flips Dodge Charger on Hwy 401 ramp

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 It’s not clear what year the Charger is or whether it does indeed “gotta Hemi,” but its driver clearly couldn’t handle the car’s power and weight in combination with the curving ramp. “Speed too fast for the ramp…” the OPP Highway Safety Division’s tweet reads. “#TorontoOpp are investigating. Minor delays.”

And officers didn’t have to investigate too hard or for too long before they found they found something else. According to a follow-up tweet from the Highway Safety Division, the driver requested his backpack be retrieved from the passenger’s seat, which led police to discover an array of what look like black- or grey-market cannabis products clearly within reach of the driver. 

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The presence of cannabis — now a legal product across Canada — in the car is not in itself necessarily a punishable offence, even if the products were not purchased at a legal dispensary, but having it stored so close to the driver certainly is. 

“Officer can you get my knapsack from the front seat please,” the second tweet reads, adding that the driver was hit with cannabis charges on top of careless driving. As noted by commenters, however, use of the hashtag “SayNoToDrugs” in the social media post reveals potentially outdated and ill-informed police views that do not reflect cannabis as the legal product it currently is in Canada. #DoBetter

Regardless of police’s antiquated Reaganesque position on legal pot, the incident is a clear reminder to both watch your speed at all times and especially in corners, as well as a lesson in how/where to legally and safely store substances like cannabis or alcohol in a vehicle. Provincial laws vary, but most (including Ontario) dictate that all cannabis products, like alcohol, must be sealed and inaccessible to anyone in the vehicle during operation.