Roadside Drug Testing Approaches

Abstract

The purpose of this review is to present an overview of roadside drug testing, driving enforcement, and drunk/drug driving detection around the world. Drunk and drug driving is a severe problem, not only in the UAE, but also around the world. This has important implications for road safety as drunk or drug driving may increase the chances of a driver’s involvement in a road crash when compared to a drug-free driver. Recently, due to increases in drug-impaired drivers’ crash involvement, many mobile roadside drug testing devices have been introduced to the market. These devices use oral fluid, urine or blood matrices. These are on-the-spot tests, which are easy to use and are applied by law enforcement agencies and the public. Law enforcement agencies most commonly use oral fluid to detect the presence of illicit drugs in drivers. This review discusses all the available devices in the market used by the authorities. It also describes the type of drugs widely abused by drivers along with behavioral testing methods. The different types of matrices used for roadside drug testing are also evaluated. Sample collection, storage, and pre-treatment methods are discussed, followed by the confirmatory analysis of positive samples. This article will significantly help law enforcement agencies compare and evaluate all the reliable roadside testing devices and new emerging confirmatory devices available to them in the market. This will help them make an informed decision on which device to adapt to their individual needs.

Detección de drogas en saliva: aspectos metodológicos y legales

“…Los test en el terreno suelen utilizar fluidos orales, seguido de análisis posteriores de laboratorio para confirmar mediante otra prueba diferente los casos positivos de drogas ilícitas. Es importante para ello cumplir el protocolo de las técnicas de recolección y almacenamiento de las muestras biológicas 55 .…”

Cannabis and Driving

“…A number of recent papers have surveyed various issues pertaining to roadside detection of putatively cannabis-impaired drivers (120)(121)(122)(123). Because roadside detection of alcohol impaired drivers works so well and straightforwardly, this model has undoubtedly biased expectations, procedures, expectations and policies in the case of cannabis.…”

Portable Digital Linear Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer Based on Separate-Region Corona Discharge Ionization Source for On-Site Rapid Detection of Illegal Drugs

“…Therefore, for scenarios such as border control, airport, court security, and prison, there is enormous demand for instruments for narcotic detection on the site, which should be sensitive, reliable, rapid, and easy to use. Currently, a number of technologies have been applied in this particular field, such as IMS (ion mobility spectrometry) [ 2 , 3 ], Raman spectrometry [ 4 ], FT-IR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) [ 5 ], fluorescence techniques [ 6 ], and so on [ 7 , 8 ]. However, as the number of target analytes continues to increase, especially NPS, the current technologies and solutions are largely outpaced and found difficult to cope with the growing challenges.…”