Police / Drug driving a ’significant problem’, roadside testing trial results show
- Use of drug wipe kits in Shetland set to continue
- Roll-out across Scotland expected to be slow and in small steps
THE INITIAL findings of a six-month pilot in Shetland to detect people driving while impaired through drugs has been described as “positive” and largely in line with expectations.
At the end of last year Shetland was chosen by Police Scotland as a testing ground for a new mouth swab drug wipe kit.
Shetland officers were the first in Scotland outside of road traffic specialists to receive training in using the kits.
Described by police as similar to a pregnancy test, the swabs have been used 30 times since early December with a 50 per cent detection rate.
Photo: Hans J Marter/Shetland News
Should the initial result from the wipes indicate that drugs are present, the driver will be arrested and taken to the police station to give a blood sample.
The blood sample is then sent to an accredited laboratory which can analyse the presence of drugs to an evidential standard.
So far, there have been no convictions yet in Shetland off the back of the trial, but some cases are currently going through the criminal justice process and might end up in court.
The use of the wipes may now be rolled out across Scotland, however when and to what extent that will happen depends on government funding and additional laboratory capacity for blood testing.
This week Police Scotland’s head of road policing chief superintendent Hilary Sloan and Scottish Police Authority’s director of forensic services Fiona Douglas were back in the isles to update the community on the results of the pilot.
Sloan said: “We have used a total of 30 drug wipes across Shetland – 15 were positive, 14 were negative, and one inconclusive.
“Just over 50 per cent equates to what we would expect to see as a result of the use of the drugs wipe; that is pretty much reflective of the mainland in Scotland, England and Wales.”
Area commander chief inspector Chris Sewell said local officers had been trained to use the wipes.
They are being used whenever there is a suspicion a driver has got behind the wheel while under the influence of drugs.
Sloan confirmed that the use of the wipes will continue in Shetland.
Douglas added that to make the roads of Scotland safer it was important to understand the prevalence of drug driving, which she said is much more widespread than was anticipated when the legislation was first implemented.
She added that there are limits set for both illegal and prescribed drugs.
“We look for a range of different drugs,” she said. “The legislation sets out 17 specific drugs where there is a limit set out in legislation, but more broadly we find hundreds of different drugs in samples that Police Scotland have taken.”
Sewell said: “What this shows is that still far too many people are driving under the influence of drink and maybe drugs in Shetland.
“Any person driving under the influence of drugs are putting other road users at risk and make the roads less safe.”
The results of the pilot will help Police Scotland road policing team work out how best to introduce this new tool to other parts of the country.
Douglas said: “It will be an incremental roll-out, we need to build further testing capacity in the laboratory to allow it to fully roll out across the country.
“That will require investment from the Scottish Government. “At the moment we are reliant on sending some of the test activity down to England, so we need investment in building capacity.
“The positivity rate that we are seeing, shows that this is a significant problem.”
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