TEHRAN — Homegrown rapid detection kits used for screening drug abuse among the drivers on the site were unveiled on Tuesday, ISNA reported.

Breath alcohol test are being used to determine the level of alcohol in one’s blood, but it is not easy to decide if a driver is driving under the effects of a drug, so that the kits can help the traffic police chief to easily recognize drivers who have used drugs, Ja’far Mohaqeq, an official with traffic police explained. 

The kits are designed in a way that can indicate whether the driver has done drugs or not within three minutes and can even tell the kind of drug the driver is on, Mohaqeq added. 
According to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse effects of specific drugs differ depending on how they act in the brain. For example, marijuana can slow reaction time, impair judgment of time and distance, and decrease coordination. Drivers who have used cocaine or methamphetamine can be aggressive and reckless when driving. Certain kinds of sedatives, called benzodiazepines, can cause dizziness and drowsiness. All of these impairments can lead to vehicle crashes.

Research studies have shown negative effects of marijuana on drivers, including an increase in lane weaving, poor reaction time, and altered attention to the road. Use of alcohol with marijuana made drivers more impaired, causing even more lane weaving.

According to the World Health Organization in 2013, illicit drug use was estimated to be responsible for just over 39 600 road traffic deaths worldwide. Amphetamine use was estimated to cause around half of these deaths while cannabis was estimated to cause one fifth of them. Although there were more deaths due to drink-driving worldwide in the same year (just over 188,000), the risk of death from drug-driving remains high.

MQ/MG