ROADSIDE DRUG TESTING LAW FLOPS

DEARBORN – Michigan drivers may be subjected to questionable roadside drug testing under a recently proposed law.  The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge), claims that roadside saliva tests offer a quick and inexpensive alternative to blood testing.  No other state has adopted roadside saliva tests, which are riddled with potential errors, and taxpayers will incur hefty costs to implement the dubious program.

Drugged driving is a serious public safety concern, but Michigan has repeatedly rebuffed traditional methods of combating this problem.  State police and lawmakers turn to quick, easy solutions, scoffing at the efforts undertaken in other states that focus on police officer training.
        
Saliva testing is a quick, easy solution to drugged driving that flops.  Saliva tests have been researched for nearly two decades as a potential roadside screening tool for police officers.  To date, no one has established a workable model to employ for law enforcement purposes.  Saliva tests have various cutoff levels, and at lower cutoff levels, false positives become problematic.  At higher cutoff levels, saliva tests fail to flag drug abusers.  Sensitive saliva tests reveal drug exposure for days or weeks after the substance has been ingested, confusing past exposure for intoxication.

As a preliminary roadside test, saliva testing has appeared promising, but its limited evidential value has plagued implementation.  Jones, a former law enforcement officer, ignores the research and proposes to use saliva testing as evidence of intoxication as opposed to a preliminary screening tool.

The Michigan State Police toxicology unit favors using blood for drugged driving enforcement.  Blood accurately reveals current active drugs in a driver’s body. Jones complains that blood testing takes too long to complete.  Saliva, he claims, will produce faster, cheaper results, pointing to the $15 price tag attached to each drug kit. 

Saliva testing will prove to be expensive and time consuming.  To implement the new law, the Michigan State Police toxicology unit will be forced to purchase a new machine that costs a whopping $400,000.00 per unit.  Unless the state invests in several units, testing will actually take longer than blood tests. 

Jones never contacted the Michigan State Police toxicology unit before proposing the new law.  A source at the toxicology unit has confirmed that the lab would continue to encourage blood testing even if the law passed, since blood produces more reliable results.

To tackle drugged driving, lawmakers should focus on police officer training by implementing the Drug Evaluation and Classification (DEC) Program.  This intense training program has been adopted by 37 other states and has a track record of proven results.  On the other hand, roadside drug testing is an expensive gimmick that has no track record and raises too many concerns.