Recommendations for Toxicological Investigation of Drug Impaired Driving*

Abstract

Investigation of a suspected alcohol or drug impaired driving (DUID) case ideally contains several key elements, including a trained officer documenting observations of driving and subject behavior, and collection of a biological specimen for comprehensive toxicology testing. There is currently no common standard of practice among forensic toxicology laboratories in the United States as to which drugs should be tested for, and at what analytical cutoff. Having some uniformity of practice among laboratories would ensure that drugs most frequently associated with driving impairment were consistently evaluated, that appropriate methods were used to screen and confirm the presence of drugs, and that more accurate data were collected on the extent of drug use among drivers. A survey of United States laboratories actively involved in providing analytical support to the Drug Evaluation and Classification Program identified marijuana, benzodiazepines, cocaine, prescription and illicit opiates, muscle relaxants, amphetamines, CNS depressants, and sleep aids used as hypnotics, as being the most frequently encountered drugs in these cases. This manuscript presents recommendations as to what specific members of these drug classes should at a minimum be tested for in the investigation of suspected DUID cases. Additionally we include recommendations for analytical cutoffs for screening and confirmation of drugs in blood and urine. Adopting these guidelines would ensure that the most common drugs would be detected, that laboratories could compare epidemiological findings between jurisdictions, and that aggregate national statistics on alcohol and drug use in drivers involved in fatal injury collisions were representative of the true rates of drug use in the driving population.