Police in Michigan could begin using roadside spit tests for drug usage under a bill that received a state House committee hearing Thursday.
Supporters of the legislation say treating saliva tests like breathalyzers would make roadways safer.
State Representative Julie Rogers (D-Kalamazoo) sponsors the bill. She said that tool would give officers the first sign that their suspicions may be correct. Meanwhile, a blood test could later confirm them.
“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,” Rogers said during Thursday’s House Rules Committee hearing.
The legislation has already been approved by the House Government Operations Committee. But, it was referred to the Rules Committee for a follow up hearing since it dealt with Michigan State Police’s rulemaking authority.
Rogers and her co-sponsors on the legislation argue no one would be arrested based on one of the saliva tests alone, without field sobriety or blood testing to back it up.
But Tim Beck, with the Michigan Republican Cannabis Caucus, said the bill would open the system up for abuse. Especially since the saliva tests alone can’t recognize impairment.
"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,” Beck told the committee during his testimony.
This isn’t the first time policymakers have considered how to test drivers for impairment with non-alcohol-related substances. Especially since the legalization of recreational adult use marijuana in Michigan in 2018.
A Michigan State Police pilot program that spanned between 2019 and 2020 found around 11% of the saliva tests gave false positives for cannabis usage, compared to blood testing.
In 2022, the state Court of Appeals ruled against the use of court testimony from drug recognition evaluators to establish someone’s impairment in intoxicated driving cases.
That same year, MSP paused its THC toxicology testing due to an issue with tests not being able to fully distinguish between THC and CBD usage.
