Drug driving test returns false positive

[MongyMan]

http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/k/y/0/i/q/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gkww9b.png/1447419755056.jpg

Cabinetmaker Steven Hunt. Photo: Rohan Thomson

When Steve Hunt was pulled over for a routine roadside drug test on his way home from work, he thought everything would be fine.

He was wrong.

That one test triggered a nightmare scenario in which he was repeatedly misdiagnosed as having methamphetamine - a drug he has never touched - in his system by police and NSW Health tests.

I have no trust whatsoever in the police any more. 

Steve Hunt

The case triggered NSW Health to begin double-testing samples, but that was too late for Mr Hunt, who was forced to pull $5000 out of his home loan to fight for his innocence. Losing his licence would mean he couldn't work.

The state government is planning a massive roll-out of the same drug-driving tests that misdiagnosed Mr Hunt, with 100,000 NSW drivers expected to be tested - and it's not to identify those under the influence of drugs (a different offence) but simply whether they have the "presence" of drugs in their systems.

Police admit there is no lower limit used for the amount of drugs detected. 

"The first moment I realised something was wrong was when the policeman came back to me and said 'I think we are going to have a problem here'," Mr Hunt said.

The test had detected methamphetamine in his saliva. He was arrested and taken to a portable testing station, where a second test was negative. A further sample was sent to NSW Health pathology. Two weeks later he got the result: positive.

"I had been sitting there going to my wife 'no, no, no, this won't come back positive'," he said. "I have never taken drugs in my life."

Mr Hunt's lawyers demanded the sample be retested. The same NSW Health lab, testing the same sample, got a negative result. A further test was also negative, and in court police did not present evidence, and the case was dismissed.

"I have no trust whatsoever in the police any more," Mr Hunt said. "If it can go wrong once, it can go wrong again, and I don't want to lose another five grand."

Fairfax Media has also spoken to a woman, who did not want to be named, who had marijuana detected despite never having used the drug. She also had a positive, then negative, then positive result, but was never told she could get it retested.

Greens MP and justice spokesman David Shoebridge said the roadside drug testing was a "lottery".

"The problem is the police are testing for tiny trace elements of drugs and this makes the results inherently unreliable," Mr Shoebridge said. "Steve was just minding his own business … and he had his life turned upside down by a plainly stupid law. It's awful what has happened to him, how much it has cost, and we know he is not alone."

Mr Shoebridge said it was extremely difficult to get legal costs back from the government, but he had written to the Police Minister to suggest Mr Hunt be given an ex-gratia payment. 

"It's time to scrap the failed roadside testing regime and put in place a rational program that tests for impairment, and tests for every drug, not just a handful of illegal drugs," Mr Shoebridge said.

NSW Police maintain the tests are an important deterrence tool in preventing road accidents caused by impaired drivers, which are implicated in 14 per cent of road fatalities. One in 10 tests this year returned a positive result, compared with one in 300 alcohol tests.

Sharon Neville, the acting director of the NSW Health Forensic and Analytical Science Service (FASS), said that since roadside drug testing was introduced in 2007 it had tested more than 14,000 samples, and Mr Hunt's case was the only error it was aware of.

"The initial incorrect result reported by FASS was due to a manual handling error," she said. "Additional measures and quality control steps were implemented as a result of this case, with all samples now being analysed twice before reporting. These steps ensure tighter controls on manual handling and all other parts of the process."

She said the screening tests conducted by NSW Police had different sensitivities to the "comprehensive" testing equipment used by FASS.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/health/legal-nightmare-for-man-as-drug-driving-test-returns-positive-for-drug-hes-never-used-20151111-gkww9b.html?utm_campaign=echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#ixzz3rbr92RHs
 

[Naycha]

It's shocking that people are allowed to be treated this way purely because of the power differential between the police/government and the ordinary citizen. The police openly admit that the reason they use these types of unreliable and unfair tests is to create fear among the community...

 

...........NSW Police maintain the tests are an important deterrence tool...........

 

 

..... the police/government, after being proven to be in the wrong, use their position/s of power to avoid taking responsibility to the point where an innocent man has to spend more time and money to recover the money the police/government forced him to use to defend his innocence. This poor man and his family should not have to suffer in this way all for a fear campaign that does nothing for public safety.

 

I don't believe for one second that NSW Health are not aware of any more errors, and I am sure they know that the testing is unfair in general. NSW Health are interested in nothing other than protecting their own jobs and perceived status. The corruption within NSW Health is of the same magnitude as the corruption within the police, and I'm not sure if I could name one organisation as worse than the other.

 

I hope the broader community really takes notice of the problem here and bands together to stand up against it. These tests are not only unfair to drug users. As this and other cases highlight, these types of roadside tests can also affect the lives of those who don't use drugs at all.

 

I don't support impaired driving.

[Faith]

+1 for Queensland Naycha...both are in a shambles.  I believe they are in damage control and we will see their true colours concerning our health, well being and freedoms. 

The police that had dealings with me knew it.  They knew they were enforcing a form of tyranny.  We are neither convicts nor subjects any longer.  These serve themselves, not us...through fear both theirs and that which they pass on to us.  How do we respect them then? 

 

Peace and all good things,

Faith

[Jagged]

I dread one of these.

[Razz0r]

Iam i shit in nsw if they pull one out because I will refuse the test based on the fact they do not detect if Iam impaired or not and then be in more shit from there. heres to hoping I do not get one!

[manbearpig]

https://www.facebook.com/NorthernRiversPoliceLocations/

 

a handy tool when you're out and about

[MediKat]

It's fked, but the way it is atm its not a matter of if but when. i'm already tossing around the idea of just handing my licence in because of the bullshit when it happens to me

[Johnydark]

A friend of ours put us onto hemp seed oil as its legal in Australia and while it is not intoxicating, it does throw a false positive on the roadside mouth swab tests.

There have been several court cases thrown out recently when the defendants turned up with a bottle of hemp seed oil and said they use it on their salad or whatever. Apparently the cheap arse mouth swab test detects all cannaboids not just thc.

You are screwed if they do a blood test though.

[trippergreenfeet]

I have come across an example of false +ve in the line of work I do where workers are subject to random D&A testing.

 

The bloke in question showed methamphetamine in a urine sample, he swore black and blue he had never used meth in his life. On retest, meth showed again, long story short bloke gets sacked still swearing innocence all the way to the front gate.

 

After doing his own testing and research, it turns out the blood thinning medication he was taking could also give false +ve meth results. However, this particular drug was not on the list of drugs that can show false +ve on drug tests.

 

He never got his job back.

Edited November 30, 2015 by trippergreenfeet