Source: Scotsman (UK)
Contact:  Tue, 24 Mar 1998
Author: Karen McVeigh

UK: 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?

"The main aim of today's tests are to guage the public's reaction to the
testing and to test out the practicality of the devices themselves."

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."