An off-duty Saanich police officer helped take a drug-impaired driver off the road Saturday when he spotted a woman smoking marijuana in the car next to his.
He was parked at the Gorge Shopping Centre, at Gorge and Tillicum roads, when he noticed the female in the red Ford Escort next to him smoking a joint, using a pair of medical forceps.
The officer contacted Saanich police and provided them with a licence plate and location of the vehicle. He then went to get his morning coffee.
The female left the parking lot, but she was stopped nearby by two patrol officers.
While she denied smoking marijuana, there was smoke billowing out of her car, said Sgt. Dean Jantzen.
The 50-year-old woman was found to have no driver’s licence, so the borrowed vehicle she was driving was impounded.
kslavin@saanichnews.com