Heads up WARNING for Southern California residents in San Diego!
Us veteran stoners know that cannabis doesn’t make you a worse or unsafe driver.
However. That’s not what the San Diego police department thinks, believes or even will begin to take time to understand.
Their newest “weapon” is called the Drager 5000 [1] and it was designed to test your saliva for the presence of THC in your body.
This bogus new prohibitionist tool also tests for other drugs including; amphetamines, Methamphetamines, cocaine, morphine, and benzodiazepine.
A quick cotton swab of your saliva will produce results in just a handful of minutes.
Like with all drug testing, cannabis tends to get the most special attention.
As I’m looking at the user manual [2], the first thing I noticed was how much cannabis it took to pop positive, with their new little drug testing kit.
THC has the LOWEST amount that you’re allowed to have in your body over all the other drugs.
If you have more than “5 nano-grams” of THC in your body you will fail the test.
Interesting how they allow you to have 3 times as much benzodiazepine in your system than they would allow THC (15 nano-grams).
And. You’re allowed to have all the way up to “50 nano-grams” of amphetamines before you fail the drug test, more than 10 times what you’re allowed for THC.
What does all this mean?
This means you’re allowed to have up to 10 times as many other drugs in your body than you’re allowed to have cannabis in your body.
This new drug testing kit the San Diego Police Department was unleashed on the evening of Saint Patrick’s day (March 17, 2017).
What does this really mean to San Diego natives and fellow travelers?
What questions do we have on our minds about this new cannabis drug test?
- Does the Drager 5000 test for any amounts of cannabis in your body or does it test for “intoxication?”
- Does a cotton swab of saliva still constitute as being “invasive?”
- If caught with this, can they legally make you take the test?
- What happens if you deny the test?
- Will the evidence of an oral swag hold as legitimate evidence in court?
Does the Drager 5000 test for any amounts of cannabis in your body or does it test for “intoxication?”
With all tests involving cannabis, they are not testing for current intoxication.
They are testing for any and all the THC they can probe and find in your body.
Currently I don’t know of a “test” the can pinpoint “toxicity.”
The reason why you can’t necessarily measure toxicity or “intoxication” is because being intoxicated quite literally doesn’t exist when consuming cannabis.
However. Officer Ramirez says the device doesn’t test for substances used in the past, it’s going to test for drugs active in your body at the present.”
Find me the patent number, I wouldn’t trust people using this technology, at their word.
Does a cotton swab of saliva still constitute as being “invasive?”
Even if they say this is not a “non-invasive” procedure (compared to blood and/or urine analysis) my question is, if you’re looking for ANY levels of cannabis, you are wrong and that makes it invasive.
As the Drager 5000 says right on their product website, they claim this is a non-invasive procedure.
Quickly, I Googled the definition of what it means to be “invasive” and the Drager 5000 fails to meet the requirements of it being a non-invasive procedure.
What does it mean to be invasive?
As per definition on Google search, invasive means either; intruding on a person’s thoughts or privacy; and/or, involving the introduction of instruments or other objects into the body or body cavities.
Last I check, having a cotton swab shoved into my mouth both invades my privacy and is a tool that “enters” my body.
Thus accurate terminology labels all forms of drug testing invasive.
If caught with this, can they legally make you take the test?
According to the Law Offices Of John Carney, the answer in short is, no.
No they can not make you take a drug test.
In fact!
You should not even talk to them.
Demand that the questioning stops and demand an attorney be appointed to you.
Or if you can afford it, retain a lawyer you trust.
Since they have no “real” evidence to arrest you, you could get out easy if you stay calm, patient, level headed & only say variations of the word LAWYER!
Whenever an unjust or obnoxious arrest happens, the police rely on the fact that most people are stupid and are easy to manipulate to submit to the authority to anything the officer may ask of them.
The stupid people will confess and hand over all the evidence they need to make an arrest.
They say, ignorance of the law is no excuse.
This is mostly true.
Know enough about the law to cover your tail in those random situations involving police activity.
If you ever run into a police, shut your mouth and the only thing you say is, “I need to speak with my attorney please.”
What happens if you deny the oral swab drug test?
The worst thing they can do is use this as evidence against you in court.
The best thing you can do is be educated and have your NORML Freedom Card on you.
Here’s a link to print a Freedom Card to put in your wallet or purse.
http://norml.org/pdf_files/
This little card will act as your “first aid” for knowing the base line legal information to keep you as safe as possible.
Will the evidence of an oral swag hold as legitimate evidence in court?
DUI Defense Attorney Vik Monder doesn’t think so. [3]
This is a voluntary test and currently there are no set standards or limits as to what is the objective measurement of intoxication or impairment.
In this article, we learned the importance of learning basic legal language, the EXTREME importance of staying silent, and the SUPER EXTREME importance of using the word lawyer.
[2] https://www.draeger.com/
HempWriter.com, HempBall.com, @HempWriter
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