Drug Testing Kits

An officer planning to use a police drug test kit doesn’t always have to have a blood sample. Such a kit could very easily require the examination of more than one type of sample. For example, a police drug test kit might require a driver suspected of drug use to provide officers with a urine sample or a saliva sample. Such a kit might also include testing equipment that has been designed especially for the examination of a hair sample. The biochemistry of the blood, the urine, the saliva and the hair all offer information of value to someone intent on drug detection.During the 1970s and 1980s politicians came under increasing pressure to end the sale and use of drugs within the U.S. Statistics had shown that drug use had been responsible for a growing number of car accidents. Some politicians hoped to put in the hands of law enforcement officials a way to detect drug use by an errant driver.

Some politicians made contact with scientists in the pharmaceutical industry. While the tools of that industry had aided the manufacture of drugs, those same tools could also be used to detect drugs. Those tools could conceivably be part of a police drug test kit.

Of course, lawmakers realized that they needed to develop the confidence of law enforcement officers in any sort of police drug test kit. At that time, the testing for alcohol use did not rely heavily on a testing device. At that time officers identified drunk drivers primarily by observing their ability to handle two simple tasks.

At that time law enforcement officers would usually ask an allegedly drunk driver to touch his or her nose with a finger from an extended hand. Then the same driver would need to walk for the officer who suspected dangerous alcohol use. The officer did not use any sort of test kit.

Since those stopped for alleged drunk driving did not get tested with a kit, law enforcement officers did not appreciate the benefits of a police drug test kit. In fact, certain members of the public objected to the use of a police drug test kit. They focused on their fear that some arrests might be based on false positive results.

While the politicians consulted with one group of scientists, hoping to gain facts that could bolster a public acceptance of roadside drug testing, a second group of scientists took on the role of inventor. They wanted to invent a very compact test kit—something that could become a field drug test kit.

Some scientists understood the role that computers would play in any roadside-testing device. Those scientists met with technology specialists, those who could create a workable microchip. Those efforts at cooperation allowed the introduction of drug detection tools at the scene of car accident.

Eventually, drug users had to accept the existence of the police drug test kit. Lawyers had lost their battle to paint such kits as an illegal infringement on the rights of a driver. Drug users then focused on ways to “beat” any known drug test kit.

Drug users learned the amount of time that each drug stays in the bloodstream, the saliva, or a strand of hair. Armed with that information, drug users knew better when they could get behind the wheel, confident of passing any sort of drug test.