Usefulness of Roadside Urine Drug Screening in Drivers Suspected of Driving Under the Influence of Drugs (DUID)

Abstract

In Belgium, the driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) procedure consists of three steps: observation of external signs of drug consumption by a police officer; an on-site urine test for amphetamines, cannabinoids, cocaine, and opiates; and blood sampling by a physician for gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. The driver is sanctioned if THC is greater than 2 ng/mL, morphine is greater than 20 ng/mL, or amphetamine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), methylenedioxyethylamphetamine, N-methyl-1-(3.4-methylenedioxyphenyl)-2-butanamine, cocaine, or benzoylecgonine are greater than 50 ng/mL in plasma. We analyzed the results of 450 blood samples taken from May 2000 to February 2005. Cannabis was most often found above the cut-off (73.5% of the cases), followed by MDMA (20.4%), amphetamine (19.8%), benzoylecgonine (17.9%), cocaine (6.9%), and morphine (2.7%). One drug was found in 72.0% of the cases, two drugs in 22.6%, three drugs in 5.2%, and four drugs in 0.25%. In 10.7% of the plasma samples no target drugs were found above the legal cut-off. This percentage was 8.4% when urine was obtained and tested on-site and 21.2% when no urine was obtained (chi2 = 8.574, P = 0.0034). In 64.6% of these samples, a target drug (THC in 74.2%) was found under the legal cut-off. These data indicate that roadside urine testing significantly decreases the number of unnecessary blood analyses in DUID.

Cocaine and benzoylecgonine concentrations in fluorinated plasma samples of drivers under suspicion of driving under influence

“…Detection of this group depends on the perception of the police officers and additionally there are remarkable differences between countries, probably because of different national road traffic acts and levels of attention to the problem. The prevalence for COC abuse in the present study is higher than in most other reports with a rate between 0.1 and 8.4% [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48], but in the US [49,50], Belgium [51,52], the Netherlands [53], Switzerland [54], and Germany [36,55] a higher prevalence was found between 10.2 and 32.7%.…”

Analytical evaluation of a rapid on-site oral fluid drug test

“…Cannabis is a widely used drug and earlier research showed that THC is the most prevalent drug among impaired drivers in Belgium, followed by amphetamine and ecstasy [11]. In this study opiates follow THC regarding prevalence, but this was also as expected, since the majority of the recruited drug addicts come to the rehabilitation centre for methadone substitution, to control their heroin addiction.…”

Detecting Alcohol and Illicit Drugs in Oral Fluid Samples Collected from Truck Drivers in the State of São Paulo, Brazil

“…In general, studies considering toxicological analysis of biological specimens involve collections of samples from drivers suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol/drugs or involved in accidents (Holmgren et al 2007;Raes and Verstraete 2005;Romano and Voas 2011). However, some studies have considered the analysis of biological samples from the general driving populations to estimate the prevalence of alcohol/drug use.…”