NCJ Number
202279
Journal
Corrections Forum Volume: 12 Issue: 4 Dated: July/August 2003 Pages: 18-19,21
Editor(s)
Thomas S. Kapinos
Date Published
July 2003
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article presents new noninvasive drug screening technologies.
Abstract
Low-cost, noninvasive drug screening technologies are sorely needed in California where Proposition 36, enacted in July 2001, is re-routing many nonviolent drug offenders away from jail and into supervised probation and drug treatment. Urinalysis, currently the only drug testing technology that is acceptable to a court of law, is expensive and funding in California cannot keep up with the demand. Another problem is that approximately 80 percent of the probationers sentenced under Proposition 36 are male, whereas 70 percent of the field probation officers are female. The result is that the small number of male probation officers are spending a large proportion of their time witnessing urine samples. As such, criminal justice officials from San Diego and Orange Counties requested that the Border Research and Technology Center present a workshop on noninvasive drug screening technologies that may be available in the near future. The article provides an overview of skin patches and sweat tests, saliva testing, trace and portable detection scans, and pupil scans. The pupil test was tested by San Diego County and was found to be 98 percent accurate against urinalysis tests. It is estimated that the pupil scan could save the county about $2,000 within just 2 months. The technologies presented in the article are not touted as definitive drug screening tools, but as cost-effective, probable cause measures.