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Monday, June 30, 2025

Federal Government Approves Saliva Sampling Device to Test For Drug Impairment .

 

With the pending legalization of cannabus, the federal governmentโ€™s crackdown on drug-impaired driving has taken a big step forward, as the Justice Department is set to give its blessing to Canadaโ€™s first roadside saliva test.

Once in use, police officers will be able to swab a driverโ€™s mouth to test for the presence of THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

Roadside saliva-testing devices were authorized by Bill C-46, a massive overhaul of Canadaโ€™s impaired driving laws that passed in June.

But before police could order any devices, a model had to be approved by Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould โ€” and she has been waiting for the advice of an independent committee made up of toxicologists and traffic safety experts.

ย Wilson-Raybould has such advice and now given 30-day notice of a ministerial order to approve theย Draeger DrugTest 5000, produced by a company based in Germany. The device is already approved in other countries, including the United Kingdom and Germany, though a Justice Department spokesperson noted it may be configured differently to meet Canadian standards.

Theย notice to approve theย Draeger device means it was tested in a National Research Council laboratory and passed an evaluation by the Canadian Society of Forensic Science. Itโ€™s possible more devices will be approved for use later on.

In addition, Public Safety Canada and the RCMP ranย a pilot project last year on oral fluid screening devices and concluded they were โ€œa useful additional tool for Canadian law enforcement.โ€ The Draeger device was not one of the two used in the pilot project.

Currently, police check for drug-impaired driving at the roadside by using a standardized field sobriety test, which can involve tests such as standing on one foot or walking in a straight line.

The saliva-testing device, which is also approved to test for cocaine, provides police with a powerful new tool to detect recent drug use (within approximately the last six hours). A failed test gives police reasonable grounds to bring a driver in for further testing, including a blood test or an examination by a drug recognition expert.

The science around detecting drug-impaired driving is much less established than it is for detecting alcohol-impaired driving, and the reliability of the devices is likely to be challenged in court by defence lawyers.