Columbus, Ohio (WCMH) – A pending bill in Ohio could allow law enforcement to implement a novel test to detect drug abusers and substance abusers, but critics question its accuracy.
Republican Representatives DJ Swearingen and Cindy Abrams introduced Bill 230 in June 2023. After the Bill passed in the House of Representatives 79 to 13 in April. The bill includes several measures that enhance or strengthen penalties for human and drug trafficking, with a focus on methamphetamine and fentanyl.
Before the bill was passed, however, an amendment was included that would add a tool for police to investigate possible driving under the influence. The amendment to HB 230 gives police officers the ability to conduct oral fluid tests on Driver suspected being under the influence of “alcohol, drugs or a combination thereof”.
Movement in the bill comes when the Introduction of leisure Marijuana sales are coming in Ohio. Cannabis is a “drug of abuse” under the Ohio Revised Code, and Abrams told Nexstar’s WCMH that the law applies in this case.
“While our law enforcement agencies will benefit from the utilize of oral fluid testing if marijuana is legalized for recreational utilize, their inclusion in this bill was not only a response to the Adoption of Issue 2 in November 2023,” Abrams said.
Attorney Paula Savchenko, who works at licensing firm Cannacore Group and regulated substances firm PS Law Group, observed a similar rollout of saliva testing in Canada after the country legalized marijuana.
“I know in Ontario these types of breathalyzers are used to determine if drivers are under the influence of cannabis,” Savchenko said. “One of the downsides to them is that they are not completely accurate yet. There is only a yes, a pass or a fail as to whether or not you have cannabis in your system. It’s not about how much cannabis, like we would see in a blood alcohol test.”
As of Wednesday, 33 states have also authorized their law enforcement agencies to conduct saliva tests on motorists, according to Responsibility.org. And local agencies like the Ohio State Highway Patrol are ready to conduct these tests. Lt. Ray Santiago explained why the agency supports HB 230.
“The patrol has been working on a method of testing oral fluids for several years because drug involvement has overtaken alcohol involvement in fatal crashes in Ohio since 2019,” Santiago said. “Testing oral fluids is advantageous because it eliminates the need for an officer of the same sex to collect urine samples and oral fluids can be collected at approximately the time the suspected impaired driver was operating a vehicle.”
In an email to WCMH, Abrams also pointed to usage and methodology in other states as evidence of their utilize.
“Michigan’s pilot program concluded that the saliva sample was accurate enough for preliminary roadside testing,” Abrams said. “Other states that already authorize the saliva sample use labs like Forensic Fluids. Forensic Fluids works closely with local law enforcement to conduct the testing in their labs with 24-hour turnaround rates while maintaining the chain of evidence to test the parent genes or ‘psychoactive element’ in a person’s body, rather than a metabolite, to test how high a person is.”
Abrams reiterated her support for the technology at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in June and before the bill passed, but in addition to emphasizing that the tests look for “the parent gene, not the metabolite,” she also referred senators to experts for more details.
Harm Reduction Ohio is a nonprofit that supports science-based drug policy and describes itself as the state’s largest distributor of naloxone, a drug used to treat fentanyl and opioid overdoses. Its president, Dennis Cauchon, doubted that testing for a parent gene would facilitate accurately detect drugs.
“That sounds good, and in some cases it makes a difference,” Cauchon said. “But when it comes to examining marijuana saliva, one is not better than the other. Neither is particularly good.”
Savchenko and Cauchon independently raised concerns that the length of time marijuana remains in the human body after consumption could pose a problem in oral fluid testing.
“I think it’s going to be really difficult to use this as concrete evidence,” Savchenko said. “Just because someone smoked this morning and is driving at 6 p.m. doesn’t mean they’re still high.”
A February article The study, published in the Journal of Analytical Chemistry and Microbiology International, supports Savchenko and Cauchon’s objection to oral fluid tests. The researchers wrote that saliva, breath and other bodily fluids contain marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient beyond the typical window of time in which a user might be impaired. The tests also carry the risk of producing false positives for drivers who may also have consumed cannabis products. CBD products.
“Recent studies have shown no direct link between impairment and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-THC) concentrations in blood or saliva, so legal delta-9-THC limits are not scientifically justified ‘per se,'” the study’s summary states.
WCMH also reached out to the Ohio Department of Health for their perspective, but the agency referred them to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Santiago pointed out that 551 people will die in “drug-related” traffic accidents in Ohio in 2023. But Cauchon does not believe that saliva tests are ready to be used as a panacea.
“These oral fluid tests are useful in certain situations,” Cauchon said. “For certain drugs, they are less intrusive than urine tests, but you really have to know when and how they work… It’s possible that these tests will be improved, so I’m not saying that’s never possible.”
HB 230 actually received some bipartisan support when it was voted on in the House in April. Democratic Rep. Cecil Thomas publicly supported it and repeated the controversial claim that Fentanyl was found in marijuanaBut other than Abrams’ mention of the saliva tests, no other member of the chamber addressed them before the vote.
HB 230 was introduced in the Senate in May and then referred to a committee. The Ohio Legislature’s website lists Senate committee hearings scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, but the chamber will not convene in full session until Nov. 13.
Read the text of the bill as introduced in the Senate below:
