Current methods used by police to detect drug driving are not based on science, say the authors of a new paper calling for an overhaul of cannabis impairment testing.
As cannabis becomes legal in a growing number of US states, public safety experts have raised concerns about the lack of reliable tools to test drivers for impairment, warning that current methods fall short of scientific standards.
Unlike alcohol, which can be tested by an objective measure of breath alcohol results through a “breathalyser”, cannabis is metabolised differently to alcohol, and THC stays in the body long after the effects of impairment have worn off. Previous studies have demonstrated that there is no clear correlation between THC levels in blood and actual driving impairment.
In the US, law enforcement officers often rely on specially trained drug recognition experts, or DREs, who use a standardised protocol to assess suspected drug-impaired drivers. This process includes evaluating physical coordination, monitoring pulse and blood pressure, assessing muscle tone, and examining pupils and eye movements, with officers trained to identify the specific substance involved based on these signs.
However, according to William J McNichol, J.D., an adjunct professor at Rutgers University Camden School of Law and author of a new editorial in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, this approach is not actually backed by evidence.
Instead, McNichol argues, the DRE process is a product of “police science”, meaning techniques created by police officers to use in their work.
Few scientific studies have tried to determine how often DREs get it right, but the existing evidence suggests they’re “not much better than a coin toss,” he says.
Despite that, DRE programmes and training are federally funded, with more than 8,000 DREs working in police departments nationwide, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police. McNichol also points out that a “spinoff” of the DRE has recently made its way into job sites: workplace impairment recognition experts, or WIREs, who are certified to detect and prevent on-the-job drug impairment.
Now that cannabis is legal in many states, McNichol says, there is an urgent need for scientifically valid, reliable methods for detecting impairment.
A related commentary in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs supports that call, with authors Thomas D. Marcotte, Ph.D., and Robert L. Fitzgerald, Ph.D., of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at the University of California San Diego, emphasising the importance of collaboration between scientists and law enforcement.
Independent, unbiased research is essential, they argue, to develop more accurate methods for identifying cannabis-impaired drivers.
“Developing more robust tools to identify cannabis-impaired drivers in an unbiased fashion is essential to keeping our roadways safe,” they write.
The authors also make a number of recommendations for improving detection of drug impaired driving, including research collaborations between toxicologists, and law enforcement to develop and evaluate new detection technologies such as psychomotor assessments, biomarkers, or in‑vehicle sensors. They also advocate for standardised performance benchmarks and the transparent reporting of validation results.
The funding for this research could be supported by reallocating tax revenue from legal cannabis sales, they add.
The post Cannabis Drug-Driving Tests Based on ‘Pseudoscience’, Say Experts appeared first on Cannabis Health News.
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