Pubdate: Mon, 21 Apr 2014
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2014 Detroit Free Press
Contact: http://www.freep.com/article/99999999/opinion04/50926009
Website: http://www.freep.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
Author: Bill Laitner, Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?275 (Cannabis - Michigan)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

MICHIGAN LEGISLATORS WEIGH GIVING DRIVERS SALIVA TESTS FOR MARIJUANA

Under a bill proposed in Lansing, Michigan could become the first 
state to adopt a roadside saliva test that aims to tell police 
whether a driver is impaired due to consuming pot.

Saliva testing is being pushed by a bipartisan group of Michigan 
legislators and championed by the Michigan State Police. But 
researchers who've studied the test method said results are 
inconsistent and especially misleading when applied to regular users 
of cannabis, such as the more than 100,000 Michiganders who are 
allowed to use medical marijuana.

"We need to look to the future," said state Rep. Dan Lauwers, a 
Republican from Brockway Township near Port Huron, who sponsored the bill.

Los Angeles police are using the saliva tests in field trials, said 
Don Targowski, a Santa Monica defense attorney who is active in 
marijuana cases. The Los Angeles police seek to determine "if the 
evidence from these tests is going to hold up in court," said 
Targowski, who has offices in Grand Rapids as well as in suburban Los Angeles.

Under Lauwers' proposal, motorists would not be arrested simply for 
failing the saliva test but only after being pulled over for "erratic 
driving," the lawmaker said. The saliva test would add confirming 
evidence to justify an arrest, just as portable breath testers do in 
cases of drunken drivers, Lauwers said.

But the two kinds of testing aren't comparable, said Brett Ginsburg, 
an associate professor at the University of Texas Health Science 
Center at San Antonio, where Ginsburg has studied marijuana testing 
and cannabis pharmacology for 10 years.

"I don't know what the level (for impaired driving) is going to be on 
the Michigan tests, but I suspect you'll effectively prohibit many 
people from driving," especially those who use the drug frequently, 
such as medical-marijuana users, he said.

Saliva testing attempts to determine a subject's level of THC, the 
psychoactive component of marijuana that presumably could affect 
driving. But because THC affects the brain through the nervous 
system, and because saliva is outside the nervous system, a saliva 
test is a poor indicator of whether behavior might be impaired, Ginsburg said.

In contrast, alcohol "pretty much permeates the entire body, all at 
once," so there's a strong and almost immediate correlation between 
the blood level and behavior, he said. Michigan seems to be the first 
state "to be moving forward and implementing a saliva test," he added.

At a hearing last week of the House Judiciary Committee, 
medical-marijuana advocates slammed saliva testing as a violation of 
their right to use the drug freely under Michigan's medical marijuana 
act. That had Lauwers saying afterward that he would support an 
amendment to his testing proposal, House Bill 5385, that would waive 
the test for motorists who could show police they possessed state 
medical-marijuana cards.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom