Toxicologist Dr. Barry Logan serves as the senior vice president of forensic science initiatives at NMS Labs in Pennsylvania. Under the leadership of toxicologist Dr. Barry Logan, a team sponsored by the National Safety Council has identified the most common drugs in impaired-driving arrests across the United States.
The National Safety Council released the report with updated recommendations on drug testing for cases of driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) and related motor vehicle accident deaths. The objective of the report was to offer guidelines to state and local laboratories on drugs to look for during testing. The recommendations are based on an analysis of drug testing practices in both US and Canada laboratories, an in-depth review of existing recommendations, and research on frequently detected drugs in DUID cases.
The updated recommendations were released after a meeting between forensic science experts and the authors of the report. There were no changes to Tier I; changes were made to cutoffs (level whereby the concentration of a substance in a specimen indicates a safety risk) and some urine, blood, and oral fluid analyses. In response to increasing DUID cases, both difluoroethane (an active ingredient used in various computer cleaners) and trazodone (a medicine used to treat depression) were included in Tier II.
The consensus panel agreed that urine is an inferior matrix compared to blood and oral fluid since it could incorporate both historical use and exposure that is not related to the observed impairment. Recommendations suggest that urine will no longer be considered as a recommended matrix. Therefore, labs testing urine should collaborate closely with traffic safety partners to adopt the use of blood and oral fluid as the ideal specimens and improve their ability to test the recommended specimens.
