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Wednesday, November 12, 2014Driving on Drugs? Stick Your Tongue Out in Canada.
Sticking your tongue out at the cop who’s pulled you over — never a good idea — is likely to become even more fraught in the near future.
With Canadian legislation to authorize their roadside use in the offing, devices that can detect marijuana, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines and methamphetamine in saliva are almost certainly on their way to Canadian highways. A little larger than a physician’s tongue depressor, a road side drug detection device, called Securetec Drug Wipe 5 S, is one of three “oral fluid” detectors currently being evaluated by a national forensics panel for use by police forces. Police rub these spongy stubs three or four times over a motorist’s tongue to collect saliva. The probe is then inserted into a small detection device that includes a layer of antibody-impregnated paper. If enough of any drug present in the saliva sample adheres to its corresponding antibodies, the paper registers a positive test.
The Canadian
forensics group is currently testing three devices to determine if the readings
they give are reliable.
