Brussels, Belgium: Law enforcement in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and throughout Europe will participate in a pilot study regarding the use of roadside oral fluid screening devices to detect for the presence of controlled substances, according to a press release from the European Police Traffic Network, TISPOL.
Under the guidelines of the year-long project, known as ESTHER (practical Evaluation of oral fluid Screening devices by TISPOL members to Harmonize European police Requirements), authorities will administer various types of saliva drug tests to motorists to screen for illicit substances.
Unlike urinalysis, which detects metabolites indicative of past drug use, saliva testing screens for the presence of ‘parent drugs’ (the identifiable psychoactive compound of a controlled substance). While certain drug metabolites are detectable in the urine for days and sometimes weeks after past use, parent drugs are only detectable in the saliva for several hours. To date, however, roadside oral fluid testing has only been implemented in Victoria, Australia, where critics of the technology have charged that the test is often inaccurate.
The goal of the EU study will be to outline a standardized procedure for roadside drug tests, not to assess the reliability or accuracy of oral fluid devices, TISPOL said.
For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Senior Policy Analyst, at (202) 483-5500.