Posted on 02/07/2018 3:28:20 PM PST by nickcarraway
Use of the devices in criminal trials is fairly new and controversial.
New technology purchased by the San Diego Police Department to detect the presence of drugs including marijuana in drivers was used during a fatal hit-and-run investigation Saturday in Paradise Hills.
The Drager 5000 is a device that detects cannabis, cocaine, methadone, methamphetamine, prescription drugs and other controlled substances in drivers.
On Saturday night, a Paradise Hills couple was on their evening stroll a few yards from their home when a driver, who was allegedly high on drugs plowed up onto the sidewalk and ended the 67-year-old man’s life.
He also seriously injured a 55-year-old woman. Police say it’s unclear whether the woman will survive.
Neighbors tried to pull the driver’s Dodge truck off the injured man as the driver tried to run away but Good Samaritans chased him down until San Diego police arrived.
SDPD Officer John Perdue says the machine uses a swab sample from the mouth, which is put into the device and evaluated over the course of 8 minutes.
Police have been using the Drager 5000 at DUI checkpoints for about 10 months, but criminal defense attorney Vik Monder says the use of the devices in criminal trials is fairly new and controversial.
“It will not be able to tell the amount of the controlled substance and what that controlled substance is doing to that individual at the time of driving, so that’s going to be the real big issue for the prosecution,” Monder said.
Perdue thinks if prosecutions are successful the program could be expanded.
“I have a pending case right now coming up this month where I use this (Drager) on a traffic stop, so we’ll see how that one turns out,” he said.
Monder said one of the bigger legal issues is there is no legal limit on the amount of marijuana one can have in their system and drive. Perdue said the device does not quantify the level of a controlled substance that is in the system, but just whether or not one of the seven substance categories are present.
It prints out what looks like a receipt with different classes of drugs and says, for example, Methamphetamine: Present. Cocaine: Negative. THC: Present.
Police said after they use the Drager 5000 to arrest someone, that person is taken to the station to take a blood test as well.
Critics of the technology have expressed concern that THC remains in your system for up to 30 days so there’s no way to tell if someone is under the influence of the drug during a crash.
Also civil rights advocates question whether police are going to retain the saliva samples or DNA for any other investigative purposes.
SDPD previously provided its policy on operating the device when it announced the purchases. That policy showed officers would be discarding saliva samples after receiving results.
The San Diego Police Department Foundation purchased three Drager 5000s, which cost about $5,000 each. The equipment was purchased in anticipation of a possible increase in marijuana-related crashes with California's passage of legal recreational marijuana.
The Traffic Division said the investigation into the crash in Paradise Hills is ongoing and have not yet provided the names of the victims or the suspect.
Can’t wait to see people getting busted for eating poppy seed rolls, oregano, salads, and for using Tylenol, Advil, and etc.
DUI checkpoints aren’t controversial, but using this for evidence in a criminal trial is?
Beam me up, Scotty. No intelligent life here.
My first thought too.
The next thought is that they will combine this w/civil asset forfeiture.
Fail test test, lose your car on the spot w/no hope of return.
In terms of weed, THC stays in your blood for about a day or two. It remains in the body and detectable in the urine for much longer.
If you have a tolerance for THC, you can drive pretty well, it’s not going to affect you like alcohol will.
If you do not have tolerance for THC, let’s say you haven’t smoked for 6 months, and your buddy brings over the dank, and you take a few hits, you are going to be f*cked up and significantly impaired, and I do not recommend driving in this state at all. Don’t do it. Very difficult to pay attention and not get easily distracted by nothing at all.
Anyone who drives impaired under the influence of anything at all, tolerance or no tolerance, is putting others lives at great risk, and needs to go to prison.
Get loaded on whatever you like at your house, stay there, don’t drive, let someone else drive if you must leave.
He looks "high" to me!
Can’t find name of perp but his picture is here: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/sd-me-paradise-fatal-20180203-story.html
It’s gotten so bad in San Diego I have almost totally quit driving. There are no rules anymore. Illegals road rage you, my wife got t-boned by a dreamer that ran through a four way when the lights were out...and then sued...cost us a new used $30,000 car...wife ran over some sort of industrial fan on freeway last week...it’s just sick what’s going on.
Gee, and I wonder why people don’t trust the cops?
“If you have a tolerance for THC, you can drive pretty well, it’s not going to affect you like alcohol will.”
Do you mean to state that you can’t have a tolerance for alcohol?
Always insist on a blood test. Cops aren't analytical chemists.
82% - 85% ACCURACY (as low as 60% for occasional users) will never withstand trial.
http://icadtsinternational.com/files/documents/2013_058.pdf
Especially with no legal standard in place.
It’s still incumbent upon the arresting officer to show impairment as a result of drugs. And, impairment alone is not enough for a legal violation...it has to be impairment as a result of drug use.
This is one thing those drug pushing states are dying for. Push the dope and then pull ‘em over.
What a racket.
“Get loaded on whatever you like at your house, stay there, don’t drive, let someone else drive if you must leave.”
Absolutely.
There is also a whole different level of sobriety if you are walking home rather than driving.
Or for having walked through a college dorm on the way to the car. I imagine second-hand pot smoke makes its way into your system.
And the magic machine makes no distinction between “just enough to register” and “Cheech and Chong’s van”.
It’s been done before, lol. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_4ULKpkLNc
Yes, you can, but alcohol affects motor skills to a greater extent than THC.
My stepdad had a staggering tolerance for alcohol, but after 20 scotch and waters, he still fell out of the drivers seat and passed out upside down in the driveway after driving home.
Regardless of one’s level of tolerance for any drug, if one is driving and is determined to be impaired, one should go to prison. Tolerance of a substance is NOT a mitigating factor.
This is the natural progession of things after people started tolerating “safety checks”. Next: keep your left sleeve rolled up.
I think it will be used as a “screening” test to determine whether to arrest someone. The actual testing to be used in a trial would take place after arrest at the police station or hospital.
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