(Marijuananews note: One’s first reaction
to the development and use of saliva testing is apt to be to recoil at one more tool for
Big Brother, you know, the one holding the cup with your urine in it.
"Revulsion" is not too strong a word.
See
Are They
Testing Your Urine Or Your Spirit?
A Reader Goes From Awareness To Anger To Activism. However,
I think that there are fundamental differences between urine and saliva testing that
should make us welcome the development of the latter, while insisting that it be
thoroughly tested and proven.
Although both are testing bodily fluids and both may be misused as disrespectful and
unwarranted intrusions, there is the obvious difference between the way the samples are
given. Moreover, even though any technology can be misused, there are legitimate uses for
this.
Most importantly, the process of establishing the reliability of saliva analysis could
also be helpful to the marijuana reform movement.
My theory is – "Freedom has nothing to fear from the truth." That is not
just my "motto," it is my strategy. You see, I really believe that, not as some
sort of ideal, but rather as a part of the way the world really works.
The police and politicians see "knowledge" as a one way street, what they
know about us, and they will try to use the tests like breathalyzers currently used for
alcohol, but with a "zero" tolerance. Any "detectable" level of THC
will be criminal.
However, knowledge is a two way street and what we know will keep us free from them. I
am not a lawyer -- (although some of best friends….) however, this should be an
interesting point to litigate both civilly and in a criminal defense case.
There would have to be a reason for the "zero tolerance " since both the
precedent of alcohol testing and rationality would establish that there must be some
connection between use and impairment.
If these tests really are consistent measures of current THC levels, then it should also
be possible to more accurately measure the relationship between THC levels and actual
impairment.
The prohibitionists are committed to the line that marijuana use is a major threat on
the roads. We know that all the evidence is the contrary, but it has been largely ignored.
See
Australian Study Of
2,500 Injured Drivers Showed Those Who Used Marijuana
Less Likely To Have Caused Accident Than Even Drug-Free Drivers
– But How Do The Swedish Prohibitionists Report It?
It is my belief that the process of proving the technology will also prove our case.
Without this technology, the Dutch and other tests have to rely on less specifically
quantifiable measures.
See
1994 Dutch Study On
"Marijuana Use And Driving" In Real World Conditions
Okay, so they want to use saliva testing? By all means!
It is in the interest of the makers of the tests to prove their
own products. If the prohibitionists really believe what they say, and most do, then they
should also welcome the testing. Or does prohibition have something to fear from the
truth?
Let’s run tests on driving and other activities while measuring current THC levels
with saliva tests.
Then let’s turn to the employers of America who are doing "drug testing"
that is really mostly counterproductive marijuana testing. (Blood testing is
possible only in much more limited circumstances.) Urine testing tells us nothing about
current impairment. It detects marijuana use for weeks after the fact, but hard drugs only
a few days. Hair testing tells nothing about current impairment, but will detect most
illegal drugs for months, if the person has long hair, or is black, or is unlucky.
Employers need accurate tests. So do employees. Here the civil law is apt to be a very
effective remedy in wrongful determination and personal injury cases.
I think that most employers would rather detect the currently impaired employee rather
than the one who used marijuana on his vacation two weeks ago. In today’s tight labor
market this would certainly be good business.
So let’s embrace this new technology, work with its developers, and insist that it
be proven reliable, and it should then also be used as a basis for just and rational laws
and employment practices.
Freedom has nothing to fear from saliva testing, if it really
works. Freedom works!)
ROADSIDE DRUG TEST
March 9, 1999
From The Herald Sun
hseditor@hwt.newsltd.com.au
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/
By Helen Carter
A WORLD-first roadside saliva test that detects drugs on the spot
will be launched in Melbourne today.
The US-developed Cozart RapiScan traces up to seven drugs in one sample, including
cannabis, cocaine, heroin, amphetamines and ecstasy.
And the results are accurate even if someone has drunk alcohol, tea, coffee, cough
mixture or used mouthwash.
The test could be used by police on the roads, in hospital emergency departments and
for insurance purposes.
It could also be used by sports bodies and employers to detect substance abuse.
A person sucks on something resembling a lollipop stick topped with cotton wool.
When enough saliva is collected on the absorbent pad, the stick is inserted into a tube
where it is mixed with fluid.
Three drops of the saliva-fluid mix are placed in a cartridge which shows within five
minutes which drugs are circulating in the person’s body.
The launch comes as the State Government gets ready to introduce new drug-testing laws.
A government taskforce is assessing the best method of testing.
But police would prefer a saliva test, which is simpler to carry
out than a blood test.
Kevin Walsh, of the Australian distributor of RapiScan, Bio-Mediq, said police in
Europe and Britain were using the test in drug-drive trials.
The Victorian Government was considering a trial, he said.
Government spokeswoman Amanda Scanlon would not comment.
But Victoria Police spokesman James Tonkin said there was no plan for a saliva test
trial at present.
American drug-testing expert Dr Vina Spiehler, in Australia for the launch of RapiScan,
said it was a breakthrough.
She said urine tests only showed if a person had been exposed to drugs in the past few
days, meaning the effects might be long gone.
"But saliva is a mirror of what’s circulating in the blood and body at the
moment," Dr Spiehler said.
"For many drugs of abuse, the concentration in saliva closely mirrors that in the
bloodstream, so saliva gives you an indication of whether a person is under the influence
of a drug at the time of testing."
Copyright: News Limited 1999
See
New Technology
for Testing Saliva To Detect Current "Drug" Use Is Announced
and
Saliva Test For
Drivers To Detect Alcohol and Other Drugs, Including Cannabis, Anticipated By End of 1999
and
Second Round Of
Roadside "Drugs" Saliva Testing In A Week-Long Trial
By Scotland's Largest Police Force.
Supported