Call for roadside drug tests to be used as evidence in court

There are calls for the police to be allowed to use roadside saliva testing as evidence against suspected drugged drivers, in an effort to streamline the current system that demands additional blood samples are taken when suspects are detained.

Roadside drug tests were made possible after the Road Traffic Act was updated in 2015, making it illegal to drive with the likes of cocaine, cannabis, ecstasy, ketamine, methadone or morphine in your system, at levels above specified limits. 

Currently police are able to test at the roadside using saliva kits or wipes, but the evidence collected cannot be used for prosecutions. Instead, police are required to take a blood test from any suspect testing positive, which then needs to be sent to a laboratory for analysis. 

This requires the police force to have sufficient resources to take samples, which often isn’t the case. Even when the police do take samples, a lack of laboratory resources can lead to startlingly long delays in processing the evidence, with results often returned outside the six-month time limit for road traffic offence prosecutions.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the introduction of roadside saliva testing, the AA is among voices calling for the law to be changed so the test results can be used as evidence in court.

The motoring organisation says the Crime and Policing Bill introduced in Parliament last week should be amended, giving the Government an opportunity to address what it calls “the growing epidemic of drug driving and its devastating consequences”. 

If the bill isn’t amended, the AA says the Government must find an alternative means to deliver critical legislative reform. “Dangerous drivers must be stopped before they kill, and our justice system must no longer enable offenders to walk free. This is a matter of life and death with nearly five fatalities every day,” it said.

D.tec International is the company that makes DrugWipe, which the Home Office has approved for police roadside testing. “For over a decade, we have allowed a broken system to keep drug drivers on our roads while victims and their families continue to suffer,” said managing director Ean Lewin.

He added: “Right now, a driver who fails a roadside drug test can legally remain behind the wheel for up to six months – and if they plead ‘not guilty’, potentially for over a year. This is solely because outdated laws force police to rely on impractical blood confirmation testing, plagued by inherent laboratory delays. 

“Worse still, an unknown number of offenders escape justice entirely when these delays exceed the six-month prosecution window. That is nothing short of a national disgrace.”

Australia and France are among the countries already using evidence gathered at the roadside to tackle drugged drivers.

Do you think there should be harsher penalties for drivers who fail drug tests? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section...