Timo Seppälä, Laboratory Director of the National Public Health Institute, warns that the instant drug tests carried by traffic police are unreliable. He told the SDP newspaper Uutispäivä Demari that the tests can detect the most common illegal drugs, but not all of them. In fact not all are even uncovered by standard laboratory tests, he adds.
Seppälä notes that drug tests for motorists are far more costly than alcohol tests, which hardly cost police anything to administer. Roadside saliva tests cost about 20 euros each, while lab tests can cost nearly 200 euros.
Finnish police began using the roadside tests a year and a half ago. A saliva sample is taken from drivers when police have reason to suspect drug use. Instant results are verified by lab tests later.
Chief Inspector Heikki Seppä of the Interior Ministry estimates that one in ten intoxicated drivers has taken narcotics. "In the Helsinki region, one in four or five people driving under the influence are on drugs," he says. He points out that there are fewer cases of drivers using both alcohol and other drugs simultaneously.
The drugs that turn most frequently in tests are sleeping pills and sedatives, as well as amphetamines and cannabis.
In 1996, Finland adopted a European Union directive that allows authorities to revoke the driving license of a motorist with a substance abuse problem.
Uutispäivä Demari, YLE24