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Steve Watt: Police Association President on the roadside drug testing roll out begins · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: Back home and roadside drug testing starts from today. The
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  Speaker 1: pilot program kicks off in Wellington with the aim of
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  Speaker 1: it going countrywide mid next year, so officers can do
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  Speaker 1: random roadside SALIVI tests. They're screening for cannabis, meth MDMA
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  Speaker 1: and cocaine MDMA by the way, ecstasy known as by
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  Speaker 1: some people. Steve what is the Police Association president and
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  Speaker 1: he joins you now come on in to you, Steve.
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  Speaker 2: What are you ready to go? Ready to go?
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  Speaker 1: How does it work?
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  Speaker 2: Look? Quite simply, it's a four stage process. The first
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  Speaker 2: step in the process is taking a swarm from the
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  Speaker 2: top of the tongue that either gives you a positive
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  Speaker 2: result or a negative result from there. If it's a
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  Speaker 2: positive result, you move on to stage two, where again
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  Speaker 2: another strip's placed underneath your tongue. It is a sample strip,
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  Speaker 2: so that sample strip is held and then you complete
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  Speaker 2: a third test again that swave of the tongue and
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  Speaker 2: a FED is positive. The sample test gets sent to
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  Speaker 2: WAG for analysis that ESR and it has to be
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  Speaker 2: matched against a prescribed limit for the drug, and if
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  Speaker 2: you're above that prescribed limit, you'll be issued with an
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  Speaker 2: infringement notice.
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  Speaker 1: So it's a much longer process than with drink testing
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  Speaker 1: drink drive testing, which we're at home with it, and
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  Speaker 1: we understand as well. Will it be as effective and
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  Speaker 1: will there be false positives and all those sort of
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  Speaker 1: concerns that people have had beforehand, It.
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  Speaker 2: Will be an effective measure. What we've got to bear
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  Speaker 2: in mind is that thirty three percent of all fer
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  Speaker 2: atal crasis between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty three involved drugs,
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  Speaker 2: So this is a welcome measure. It's not going to
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  Speaker 2: be as long or prescribed as perhaps you know, a
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  Speaker 2: four step process. As I outline, those steps are quite
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  Speaker 2: quick to work through, but it certainly will take a
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  Speaker 2: little bit longer than the alcohol testing currently does.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, will this mean more work for officers?
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  Speaker 2: Look at it as an extra step that is more
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  Speaker 2: work for officers. But what we've got to remember is
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  Speaker 2: that we want to get everyone home safe. So every
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  Speaker 2: officer out there is all about safety within the community,
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  Speaker 2: and this is another tool in which to utilize in
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  Speaker 2: order to get those people home safe on the road.
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  Speaker 1: And speaking of which, when it came to the testing
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  Speaker 1: and getting people home safe, there was some debate about
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  Speaker 1: whether impairment is being effectively measured. In other words, some people,
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  Speaker 1: some people are impaired, even though they might not actually
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  Speaker 1: trigger over the test. It hasn't been progressed on knowing
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  Speaker 1: whether the test will show impairment.
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  Speaker 2: Look, the test in itself will not show impairment. But
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  Speaker 2: what police have in their toolcit is c testing. That
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  Speaker 2: is another test outside of the oral fluid testing, which
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  Speaker 2: people will have to go through a number of steps,
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  Speaker 2: and does show impairment for drugs. So it's really important
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  Speaker 2: to sort of distinguish between the two and that that
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  Speaker 2: is a process in order to an appairment when it
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  Speaker 2: comes to drugs.
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  Speaker 1: And should people who are on heavy prescriptions be concerned.
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  Speaker 2: No, I don't think so. In reality, there are methods
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  Speaker 2: in there that if you are on prescribe drugs and
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  Speaker 2: you do go over that prescribe limit, once your test
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  Speaker 2: has been sent away and analyzed, there is a step
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  Speaker 2: to tree defense for those that are on medical drugs
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  Speaker 2: to rite away to police and explain that all.
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  Speaker 1: Right, very good stuff, Steve. What a lot of work
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  Speaker 1: has been done beforehand, It'll be a lot of work
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  Speaker 1: going forward.
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• 3:36
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• 3:39
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