A second phase of roadside drug testing will begin Tuesday, Michigan State Police announced.
According to police, Michigan has seen a steady increase in fatal crashes involving drivers impaired by drugs in recent years. In 2018, there were 247 drug-involved traffic fatalities.
“The Michigan State Police conducted a one-year Oral Fluid Roadside Analysis Pilot program, which concluded in November 2018, in five counties — Berrien, Delta, Kent, St. Clair and Washtenaw. The initial pilot provided valuable data on the performance of the oral fluid test instrument when coupled with law enforcement observed driver behavior and standardized field sobriety tests, but the overall sample size was too small to draw any definitive conclusions on the tool’s usefulness for law enforcement,” reads a statement from state police.
During that trial period between November 2017 and November 2018, state police said officers conducted 92 oral tests and 74 came back positive for marijuana. However, five of the positive tests came back as false positive after a blood test.
In Dec. 2018, the Michigan Legislature agreed to support the ongoing funding of the oral fluid pilot
and the expansion of the pilot program to additional interested, qualified counties around the state.