Pubdate: Thu, 08 May 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/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?275 (Cannabis - Michigan)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

ROADSIDE SALIVA TESTING FOR DRUGGED-DRIVING SUSPECTS DROPPED FROM BILL

A provision in a bill pending in Lansing that would let police give
roadside saliva tests to drivers suspected of being under the
influence of drugs is to be removed from the legislation today,
according to a cosponsor of the bill.

Critics, including university researchers, said the tests are
inaccurate and would allow improper arrests of medical-marijuana patients.

State Rep. Mike Callton, R-Nashville, said he planned to introduce an
amendment removing the use of saliva testing at a House Judiciary
Committee hearing today.

"There's a lot of things you can test for in saliva, but testing for
marijuana is unproven," said Callton, a chiropractor.

"This would be like giving people pregnancy tests on the side of the
road where you'd only have limited accuracy. And there's the issue of,
'I can have medical marijuana a month ago but I'll still have traces
of it in my body, so I would be considered intoxicated' " by the
tests, Callton said Wednesday night.

The two bills -- House Bill 5383 and 5385 -- were intended to give
police the same sort of law enforcement tools available in the arrest
of those suspected of drunken driving. They called for the use of the
Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN) system to access
information about any pending cases of drugged driving involving a
motorist.

With the removal of the saliva test provision, officers would rely on
field sobriety tests to determine whether a motorist was under the
influence of drugs.

The bills were spurred by a double-fatal crash last year in St. Clair
County in which a repeat offender drove under the influence of
painkillers, Callton said.

They would give police more tools for arresting drugged drivers, which
Callton favors, but he said he'd been unaware of the saliva-testing
provision until the Free Press called him last month for an article.

The bills' sponsor, state Rep. Dan Lauwers, said he'd decided to
remove the saliva-testing provision until the technology is perfected,
"and then we can bring it back."

Lauwers, R-Brockway Township, said the larger purpose of the bills is
to target drug abusers who have repeatedly driven while impaired. He
lives near Port Huron and said there had been fatal crashes in his
district caused by motorists who repeatedly abused drugs and who
continued driving after multiple arrests.

"The goal for this legislation has always been to get these repeat
offenders off the road," he said. The final wording for the bills was
"still being worked out" Wednesday night, and it might contain
language saying that new roadside methods are needed to test motorists
suspected of driving while drugged, Lauwers said.

"Law enforcement feels very strongly that we, as a society, are going
to need this, and not just for marijuana but for all of the controlled
substances," including prescription painkillers that are frequently
abused, he said.

Across the country, states and police agencies are wrestling with how
to determine who is too drugged to be driving, Troy police Sgt. Andy
Breidenich said.

"If you look at our crime stats, compared to five years ago, we have a
whole lot more (arrests for) drugged driving -- it's a change of
culture going on," Breidenich said this week.

Troy police, with a special unit assigned to catch impaired drivers,
patrol not only the main roads in the city but also I-75, he said.
Their round-the-clock efforts result in arrests of motorists from all
over the country who are driving while impaired, Troy police reports
show. While officers can use a portable breath tester to establish a
basis for arrest of a suspected drunken driver, they have no such
physiological test for drugged drivers, he said.

So officers put motorists suspected of abusing drugs through field
sobriety testing, which includes an officer's visual exam of the
suspect as well as the administration of a battery of simple verbal
and physical tests, he said.

Michigan's medical-marijuana groups were sharp critics of roadside
saliva testing last month when they learned of the provision being
considered in Lansing. Leaders, including Southfield lawyer Michael
Komorn, made the issue the subject of a recent weekly Internet radio
podcast called PlanetGreenTrees.

"I understand the need to protect the safety of our roads, but there's
very little if any connection between these tests and determining who
is an impaired driver," said Komorn, a medical-marijuana user and
president of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association.

"There's a tremendous body of research that shows the difficulties
with these tests," Komorn said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt