Pubdate: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 Source: The Scotsman, Edinburgh, UK Website: http://www.scotsman.com Contact: JANET BOYLE and JENNY BOOTH Lollipop test on the way to catch drivers on drugs New device to make roads safer, 30 years after the breathalyser was introduced A SUCK on a lollipop by the side of the road could soon help police to catch drivers on drugs. Researchers at Glasgow University are working with a bioscience firm in Oxfordshire to produce the world's first onthespot roadside saliva drugs test. Police and roads lobby groups say it could be as crucial an invention as the breathalyser 30 years ago and fear it will uncover a drugdriving problem as acute as drinkdriving was then. Drivers are asked to give a sample of spit by sucking on an absorbent lollipop. The police officer then squeezes their saliva into a miniature "drugalyser", no larger than a mobile phone. The device is calibrated to test for eight different groups of drugs including ecstasy and heroin. Results are given within five minutes. If the driver is drugs positive, the police take him or her in for further tests to confirm the roadside reading. At present if a police officer suspects that drivers are under the influence of drugs, they have to be taken back to the police station, where a medical examiner or police surgeon can examine them and certify whether or not their judgement is impaired, and administer a blood test. If drivers give a negative breath test and it is a busy Saturday night, officers may judge it is better to allow them to continue on their way rather than go through the timeconsuming rigmarole of taking them back to the station. The roadside saliva test concept is the brainchild of Dr John Oliver, a senior lecturer in forensic medicine specialising in toxicology at the university. Dr Oliver said: "This is a userfriendly field test which gives an initial reading of what a driver may be taking at the time. A backup blood test in a forensic lab would confirm this. This is the first of its type in the world." The device is being developed by Cozart Bioscience of Abingdon, Oxfordshire, with Dr Oliver acting as a consultant to doublecheck the accuracy of the testing kits. The researchers believe that their test will be the first in the world to identify which drugs are in the body at the time of driving. The process, known as immunoassay, is based on eight separate biochemical reactions, and works on the ability of each drug group to stimulate a different immune reaction. Because it is a saliva test, only drugs that are active in the bloodstream and having an effect on the driver show up unlike urine or sweat tests, which continue to register traces of drugs such as cannabis in the body environment long after they have ceased to affect the driver's behaviour. Dr Christopher Hand, who set up Cozart four years ago with his brother, Phil, and friend, Dean Baldwin, believes a prototype of the test will be available within nine months. "We are obviously keeping secret the exact mechanics of how the tests are devised but we are confident that we are ahead of any others working in the field," he said. "Perhaps the biggest benefit will be to the police in their campaign against drugs and driving." The first year of research and development for the pioneering test was done with the help of a Department of Trade and Industry Smart Award of UKP45,000, which covered 75 per cent of the project costs. With early signs already positive, says Dr Hand, Cozart is in talks with major forensic laboratories, and thus indirectly with the police, to discuss how the test should be packaged. Several prototypes are on the drawing board. The completed test will be able to detect a variety of drugs, including methadone, amphetamines including ecstasy, benzodiazepines, cocaine, cannabis, opiates including heroin and morphine and barbiturates. Comparing the results of the saliva tests with conventional blood tests to confirm their accuracy, Dr Oliver's team say it is more than 95 per cent correct. In theory the test could even tell the police officer how much of each drug the driver has in his or her bloodstream, but in practice the test kit will probably give a digital readout of a simple positive or negative for each drug group. Dr Oliver added: "Initial results are very encouraging and further work is ongoing." Police and drivers' groups have given a warm welcome to work on the lollipop kit. Supt Alastair McLuckie of Strathclyde traffic department said: "If this proves effective it could contribute a tremendous amount to safety on our roads. The problem is that while many drivers see drinking as a danger they do not recognise drugs as a similar one. Effective tests for alcohol have sent lifesaving messages to drivers and we need the same for drugs." Sue Nicholson, a spokeswoman for the RAC in Scotland, said that at present, police were confronting the same problems with drugdriving as they had been with drinkdriving 30 years ago not knowing the size of the problem, and lacking the tool to find out. "We think we are just beginning to uncover the tip of the iceberg, and the drugdriving problem could be as big a problem as drinkdriving," said Ms Nicholson. "Part of the problem is public attitude young people who would never dream of drinking and driving might consider getting into their car after taking what they consider to be very insignificant drugs. I'm not sure that they put recreational drugs into the same bracket as alcohol." Neil Greig, the roads and environment officer of the AA in Scotland, agreed that a drugalyser would be a useful new tool, but warned that it was also important to take into account how much the drugtaker's driving had been impaired by what he had taken. "Lacking an accurate drug test, the police have been talking about returning to the old prebreathalyser impairment tests of asking drivers to walk down the white line. "It is a good idea if they are that impaired the chances are they shouldn't be driving," said Mr Greig. The forensic science service estimates that only one driver in eight who has taken drugs and is pulled up by police is tested for drugs. The rest go free if they pass the breathalyser test. Health experts believe that there are about 200,000 cocaine and heroin users in UK, and more than 20,000 registered drug addicts. But recreational drug use is much, much higher, with up to half of young people taking drugs occasionally.