Michigan Considers Roadside Saliva Tests to Enhance Traffic Safety
Lawmakers in Michigan are exploring the potential of employing saliva tests on the roads to detect drug use among drivers. This proposal, which was discussed in a state House committee meeting recently, aims to enhance road safety by treating saliva tests similarly to breathalyzers.
The bill, championed by State Representative Julie Rogers (D-Kalamazoo), suggests that these tests could provide law enforcement with an initial indication of drug use, which could then be corroborated by a blood test. “If you did the roadside handheld device test, it gave you a positive or negative. That’s all it does is a kind of a green or red light, then you would follow this up with the second oral swab that would be sent to the lab that would give you a more specific [result], and that’s the part that would be admissible in court,” stated Rogers during the House Rules Committee hearing.
Having received approval from the House Government Operations Committee, the bill awaits further discussion in the Rules Committee, particularly concerning the Michigan State Police’s authority in rulemaking. This legislative move comes amid ongoing debates on the measures needed to assess impairment from substances other than alcohol, especially since Michigan legalized recreational marijuana in 2018.
However, not everyone supports this initiative. Tim Beck from the Michigan Republican Cannabis Caucus expressed concerns about potential misuse, highlighting that the saliva tests alone cannot determine impairment. He remarked, “I fear for people that don’t have, what’s that expression? Enough F-you money? To defend themselves and defend their rights. It’s going to be tough. This is a tool of oppression, it’s voodoo science.”
The background research includes a pilot program by the Michigan State Police conducted between 2019 and 2020, which revealed that around 11% of saliva tests resulted in false positives for cannabis when compared to blood tests.
Additionally, in 2022, the state’s Court of Appeals ruled against using testimony from drug recognition evaluators as evidence of impairment in intoxicated driving cases. That same year, the state police halted THC toxicology testing due to difficulties in distinguishing between THC and CBD usage.
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