The new drug tests will soon be delivered to police stations. Controls will be strengthened and the procedure simplified.
In “a few weeks”, the police stations and the gendarmerie brigades will receive the new drug screening tests. In the columns of Parisian, a “senior road safety official” has just confirmed the imminent delivery of these kits, which allow the detection of the presence of illicit substances (cannabis, cocaine, MDMA, opiates) in the saliva of drivers.
Law enforcement has been waiting for these new devices, and the modified procedure that accompany them, for some time. Indeed, until now, saliva tests, unreliable, had to be confirmed by a blood test. A time-consuming and somewhat complicated process, especially if the arrest occurs in the middle of the night on a country road.
Two saliva tests
The new saliva tests, according to the authorities, are so reliable that they can replace a blood test. From now on, a person arrested may have two saliva tests imposed: the first to determine the presence of a substance and the second (the new one) to refine the results of the first (quantity, type of drug, etc.). In fact, an experiment carried out in 11 departments has already confirmed the feasibility of this procedure, and its reliability.
For the drivers, it will be all the more necessary to redouble attention that the controls could take place unexpectedly, without preliminary cause, in the absence of any infringement. However, the police have repeatedly expressed their desire to increase drug testing while driving, while 23% of people who died on the roads in 2015 were killed in an accident involving a driver under the influence of narcotics.
Risk of stigma?
A question emerges, however, about the risk of stigmatization and over-sanctioning of drivers. Indeed, these saliva tests are able to detect cannabis use that dates back more than 12 hours … even though the consumer is no longer really under the influence of the product.
But as addictologist Jean-Michel Delile explained to us in September, “the effect of cannabis is much more lasting than that of alcohol, including for small amounts of consumption. In terms of cognitive impairment and reactivity, psycho-behavioral studies show that there are effects even seven hours after taking ”. And this, even if the driver does not feel “stoned”.
Regular cannabis users should therefore bear in mind that they will have a good chance of testing positive, even if they have not smoked all day. Which may seem unfair to them, but which, perhaps, acts as bad for good.
“For alcohol, this approach has really enabled us to obtain positive results,” Jean-Michel Delile had further underlined to us. Cannabis users are not marginalized! I see workers who realize the extent of the risks they take, especially for public servants, if they get stuck during a traffic stop. Suddenly, some want to quit for this reason. Seen from this angle, therefore, this evolution of roadside screening can be a good way to mobilize consumers ”. Provided, in fact, that the texts do not serve the cause of the all-repressive, but only aim to limit road accidents linked to narcotics and to empower populations.
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