Driving, Drugs and the Dre

Would you trust a police officer to take an accurate part of your pulse or blood pressure? If you are feeling ill, would you make an appointment with a police officer for a diagnosis? Of course you wouldn't consult a police officer for a healing evaluation.

Yet, police officers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania are acting as healing professionals during Dui investigations when drug use is suspected. More troublesome is that the opinions of these officers are being determined by courts to convict drivers.

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Specifically, these police officers have been calling themselves Drug Recognition Experts or Dres. Dres believe that by using a 12-step assessment process it can be determined if a driver is under of the influence of drugs in one or more of 7 drug categories.

During the 12-step assessment process, the officer must achieve the following corporeal evaluations:

-Check blood pressure;

-Check pulse;

-Measure size of the pupils;

-Check muscle tone;

-Check body temperature; and

-Check pupil reaction to varied lighting conditions.

Based on the corporeal conditions noted and carrying out of field sobriety tests, the Dre will state if a driver is under the influence of a narcotic analgesic, Cns stimulant, Cns depressant, dissociative anesthetic, hallucinogen, inhalant, cannabis or composition of drugs.

To come to be a Dre, a police officer does not receive formal healing training to achieve the varied evaluations mentioned above. In fact, it is fellow police instructors who "teach" the Dres how to part blood pressure, pulse, muscle tone and pupil size. These instructors are not required themselves to have formal healing training. Moreover, the officer is not required to have taken any academic courses about the recognition and effects of drugs on the body (that is pharmacology).

Is the description of this assessment process starting to seem bizarre to you? Well, it should seem strange, because improperly trained police officers are production healing determinations that are being used in court to convict drivers.

To effectively fight this junk science, proper legal challenges must be asserted to prohibit the Dre assessment from being used as evidence of Dui. Furthermore, challenges must be made about the qualifications of the Dre and about errors made during the assessment process. Otherwise, an innocent driver may lose his or her license and may be spending some time in jail.

Driving, Drugs and the Dre