Drug Detection for Impaired Drivers

For many years police have been able to administer tests to determine whether a driver was legally intoxicated or not. There are blood tests, walk the line tests, and breathalyzer tests as well as urine tests back at the station. All of these have been used in court to substantiate arrests and send people off to incarceration or the payment of their fines.

But it’s a little more difficult to determine whether a person is under the influence of drugs. People get jumpy and nervous just being stopped by an officer, so behavior like that cannot always be trusted. Besides, drugs make some people seem calmer and focused than they are normally. Yet being under the influence of drugs, even prescription drugs, can lead to mistakes that cost the lives of innocent people as well as the cost of valuable property.

The Lansing State Journal reported recently that police agencies are seeing more traffic fatalities involving drug-impaired motorists. It has become much more of a problem.

For one thing, now that medical marijuana is legal, some users have not realized that they are not allowed to drive while they are under its influence. It’s strictly a “no-driving” type of medication because of the alterations in judgment it engenders.

Michigan State Police Training Academy is hosting a three week training effort to teach police officers how to detect whether people are drug-impaired or not. This will involve examining a suspect's pupils, taking blood pressure, pulse, body temperature and performing several dexterity tests like those done to detect DUI’s. This testing might take an hour or more, so the cost factor involved with the extra time will no doubt be taken into consideration by individual police forces. On the other hand, it will hopefully save the lives of some people by preventing automobile accidents. Statistics say that drug-related traffic fatalities increased by 29 % last year.

Other states have already instituted this type of training, dating back to the late 1970’s out in California. Police here in Michigan see that the time has come to bear down on drug-impaired vehicles traveling at 70 mph on the highway, and all the tragedy that can cause.