Scottish Human Rights
Group Protests New "Drug" Detection Swabs;
No Practical Use In Determining Impairment
The ScotsmanLetters_ts@scotsman.com
March 24, 1998
By Karen McVeigh
PROTESTS GREET FIRST POLICE ROADSIDE TESTS FOR DRUG-TAKING
Scottish motorists were tested for illegal drugs for the first time yesterday, as part
of a Government crackdown on drugs driving.
The roadside tests of motorists in Strathclyde, carried out in a pilot scheme of field
trials on new scientific equipment, was condemned by civil rights groups.
The trials were carried out by four police forces, including Strathclyde, which used
the new device on motorists driving in Glasgow's Broomielaw.
The Scottish Human Rights Centre said that use of the testing
equipment, which can detect the presence of cannabis a month after it had been taken, was
"premature". They fear that the equipment can detect minute traces of drugs long
after they have been ingested, but cannot quantify the amount. The equipment is so
sensitive that it could pick up traces of cannabis at one part in 100 million.
Strathclyde Police stopped 150 drivers yesterday but none tested positive. They will
test about 5,000 motorists for cannabis, cocaine, opiates and amphetamines over the next
three weeks.
In Glasgow, where Chief Inspector Stewart Daniels tested the use of Drugwipe on
passing motorists, he said he fully expected drugs testing to become as common as the
breathalyser.
He said: "It looks like this is the road we have to go down. The incidence of
driving while under the influence of drugs has risen fivefold in the last ten years, while
drink driving has remained the same. The gap between the number of people drink driving
and driving while illicit drugs are in their system is closing.
"We need to look at whether we require a change in the legislation to ensure
roadside testing, but that is a long way down the line."
Alan Miller, the chairman of the Scottish Human Rights Centre,
said: "The pilot scheme is premature. We have not been able to correlate between the
level of drugs and the level of impairment.
"Neither can we distinguish in some cases between lawful and unlawful drugs. This
exercise is simply to prepare public opinion for police powers for drug testing."
Driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol is an offence, but although there is
a limit for alcohol above which a person is legally understood to be impaired, no level exists for drugs, whether legal or illegal, leaving it up to the
police to prove impairment.
Chief Insp. Daniels admitted that the device was unreliable as a
method of measuring whether a drug impairs driving or even whether a substance was illegal
or not. The medicine, codeine, which is an opiate, turns to morphine in the body.
"There are a number of arguments still to be worked out - we don't have
limits set, for instance. Another argument is, if we do set a level,
would we be condoning drug taking below that limit?
Motoring organisations welcomed the tests, albeit with reservations. A spokeswoman for
the Automobile Association said she would like to see more research done on the levels of
drugs that would cause impairment. A Royal Automobile Club spokeswoman said she doubted if the device would be used in its present form.
The Drugwipes incorporate a cotton swab which is wiped on the forhead of motorists,
catching a beat of sweat. Any drug traces detected by the device
will result in a visible colour change on a strip of material.
A spokeman for the Department of Transport, Environment and the Regions, which is
co-ordinating the trials by Lancashire, Cleveland, Sussex and Strathclyde police said:
"This scheme is about road safety. It will not be used to prove
impairment, but will be used as a screening device to help the police in making the law
more enforceable."
Supported