Legalized Recreational Pot Spurs California to Consider Tech to Test for Stoned Drivers
Assemblyman Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, this week introduced a bill that would allow officers to take a spit swab from drivers who’ve failed field sobriety tests. Portable instruments promise to detect the presence of pot and other drugs within minutes, telling officers whether they should potentially let the driver go free or take them to the station for a blood test and possible arrest.
“Driving is the most dangerous thing we do,” Lackey said Wednesday. “Using new technology to ... get stoned drivers off the road is something we need to embrace.”
Swab tests are widely used on drivers in the United Kingdom, but the process remains controversial.
There’s no clear impairment threshold with marijuana as there is with alcohol. Also, critics argue that the roadside testing device is still experimental, citing studies that show the tests are least effective at detecting impairment, in part because marijuana stays in a person’s...
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