Future Laws Could Mandate Drivers To Submit To Random Roadside Drug Screening
Tampa, FL: State DUID (driving under the influence of drugs) laws should allow police expanded authority to randomly draw bodily fluids from drivers in order to deter people from driving while impaired by illicit drugs, recommended panelists at this week’s two-day symposium on drugged driving, sponsored by The Walsh Group, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
The meeting, entitled “Developing Global Strategies for Identifying, Prosecuting, and Treating Drug-Impaired Drivers,” focused on ways police could better identify drivers who have used marijuana. Panelists proposed allowing law enforcement officials to collect blood, saliva, and/or urine samples from drivers during roadside stops to test for either illicit drugs or, in some cases, drug metabolites (inert compounds indicative of past drug use). Panelists agreed that an ideal policy would allow police the authority to test drivers both with cause (i.e. drivers believed by the officer to be impaired) and without cause (i.e. drivers not believed to be impaired).
“America’s experience with workplace drug testing (where suspicionless drug testing is allowed) has prepared us for drugged driving testing,” former NIDA director Robert DuPont said. “We must move away from the concept of ‘You can’t drive impaired by drugs,’ to ‘You can’t drive on drugs at all.'”
Currently, nine states (Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Rhode island, Utah, and Wisconsin) have enacted so-called “zero tolerance” per se laws which make it a criminal offense to operate a motor vehicle while having a drug or metabolite in one’s body or bodily fluids. Under such statutes, individuals can be found guilty of violating the law if the driver is found to have been operating a motor vehicle with any amount of a prohibited substance present in their system. In the case of marijuana, the inactive metabolite remains identifiable in the urine for days and sometimes even weeks after its use.
NORML Executive Director Keith Stroup called such laws unfair and bad public policy. “While driving under the influence of pot is never acceptable, neither is it acceptable to treat sober drivers as if they are impaired simply because low levels of inactive marijuana metabolites may be detectable in their blood or urine,” he said. “These ‘zero tolerance’ laws are neither a safe nor sensible way to identify impaired drivers; they are an attempt to misuse the traffic safety laws to identify and prosecute marijuana smokers per se.”
For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup or Paul Armentano of NORML at (202) 483-5500.