Pubdate: Sun, 10 Feb 2008
Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
Copyright: 2008 The Oregonian
Contact:  http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/324
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n128/a09.html
Author: Grant Beardsley

ARGUMENTS DRAW LINE: CRIMINALS VS. PATIENTS

I agree with your editorial. Proponents of marijuana use would have 
you believe that impairment testing is commercially available and 
reliable. There is no generally available, evidence-based, 
accredited, economical impairment test, nor one that can be 
administered effectively in the Oregon workplace.

Law enforcement personnel who are responsible for keeping the 
roadways free of impaired drivers administer a form of field sobriety 
testing but not by using some kind of novel "impairment test." 
Instead they administer a collection of sobriety tests. These tests 
are time-consuming to perform correctly.

If there were a readily available, reliable impairment test for use 
in addressing workplace substance abuse, it already would have been 
considered, accepted, validated and put into use on a federal level, 
but that has yet to happen.

Grant Beardsley

Clinical toxicologist

Eugene 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake