Drugged drivers can cheat testing
By Jason Dowling
State Politics
May 29, 2005
In the latest blow to Victoria Police's controversial roadside drug testing, one of the state's top forensic experts has warned that drivers under the influence of drugs could "mask" the test results.
And he said people could switch to drugs not covered by the random roadside saliva tests.
Documents released to The Sunday Age under freedom of information show the director of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine warned in November that "some drivers may try to mask the test through a number of practices".
He detailed some of them in a report to Penny Armytage, secretary of the Department of Justice.
He said they would "inevitably affect the detection rate, yet are outside the control of Government".
"Advice provided to me is that the use of masking agents in oral fluid collections is yet to be properly evaluated by the scientific community," he wrote.
He said the Government might need to review the laws to overcome people attempting to circumvent the testing.
Assistant Commissioner (Traffic) Bob Hastings said there had been no evidence of drivers attempting to "mask test results" or switch to drugs not covered by the tests.
But police would not have a clear picture until the trial was completed.
He said figures showed drug-driving was nearly four times as prevalent as drink-driving, with one in every 67 drivers testing positive for cannabis or methamphetamine-based drugs.
The trial got off to a controversial start when laboratory tests cleared two of the first three drivers who tested positive in the roadside tests. Lawyers for the first person are expected to announce in the next few weeks if they will take legal action. Van driver John De Jong, of Ballarat, tested positive within the first 15 minutes of the tests beginning in December.
Police had invited the media and Mr De Jong's positive saliva test was reported.
He immediately protested his innocence and independent and police laboratory tests nine days later confirmed the absence of drugs.
Mr De Jong said yesterday he had not received an apology from the police.
Documents obtained by The Sunday Age show Mr De Jong's lawyers, Slater and Gordon, wrote to the police traffic alcohol section on December 21 and requested "an immediate apology".
The letter said allegations had been reported in the media "that my client tested positive for drugs" and images of Mr De Jong were published.
"The various publications impute that Mr De Jong was guilty of such offences and does so in a sensationalist way," the letter said. "Furthermore, it could reasonably have been anticipated by Victoria Police that when invited to attend the testing, the media would have reported in such a way."
Mr Hastings sought "urgent legal advice" from the commander of police legal services and replied to Slater and Gordon.
"At no stage did Victoria Police facilitate or promote the identification of any individual involved in the roadside testing and consistently stressed to the media the importance of privacy," he wrote.
A police media unit incident report of December 15 said police organised the media presence.
"Due to intense media interest, media representatives were invited to attend the event at a specific location and time," it said. "Where possible, motorists were advised of the media presence and asked if they had any objections to being filmed. Most motorists indicated they were happy to be filmed."
The report also indicated the media were told that a person, whose name was deleted, had tested positive to methamphetamines as police escorted him to the drug-testing bus.
