As of October 1st, drivers in Michigan will be subject to an “oral fluid” drug test. This comes after a controversial pilot program which returned false positives almost a third of the time.
The initial pilot took place in only a few counties. With just a handful of Michigan State Police trained as Drug Recognition Experts (DREs), only 92 roadside drug tests had been given by the time the pilot ended in late 2018. Of those, MSP says that 29 tests showed positive results which were later contradicted by much more accurate blood tests.
Despite the dubious results, Michigan hailed the program as a success and has rolled it out to the entire state, calling it the Oral Fluid Roadside Analysis Pilot Program.
MSP First Lieutenant Shannon Sims told Mlive that “the general motoring public will have no contact with the oral fluid program” because the test will only be used “when there’s suspicion” that someone may be under the influence of drugs while driving.
For those who are concerned however, there doesn’t appear to be an easy solution. Submitting to the test can lead to a false positive, but refusing the test may result in a civil infraction.
Source: truckersreport, mlive, freep, clickondetroit, metrotimes
The real simple thing to do is DONT HAUL FROM OR TO MICHIGAN. If they can’t get there freight we will see how long law stands
I live in Michigan, so your “real simple” solution just seems simple minded.
This isn’t targeted at truckers. It’s because we just legalized weed, and people think that driving high is safe, and they’ll get away with it because there hasn’t been a breathalyzer for weed.
So while I continue to haul freight to and from Michigan, with the added goal of spite for people like you, I’ll continue my seven year streak of not getting pulled over in any vehicle I operate, and this will remain a non-issue for me.
Plus, look at the bright side.
If you get hit with a false positive, not only are you going to be let off after a blood test, you have an outstanding case against the state to make up for lost wages and any other damages that a trucking company would probably love to back.
Perfectly said!
Intelligent response
you mean while you go bankrupt sitting at home waiting to win your case.
Who in the HELL says that you’re REQUIRED to be “sitting at home waiting to win your case?” FOOL, don’t QUIT your day job!
Yep
This test violates our constitutional protection against illegal search and seizure. It needs to be challenged in the courts. I will refuse the test on the road side and submit to the much more accurate blood test. Then I will hire a lawyer.
Stupid response. You will not have a case cause its law. Police and State does not reimburse for lost anything unless they are in neglect. So learn how the law works before you start thinking stuff.
But you said it 7 years of experience. It probably will never happen to you but if it did. You will lose. Its not the power I would want in any ones hands.
Josh,
Your bright side analysis is much more simple-minded than what Derek posted.
I would bet your comment will be the only one that make sense here! The response will be the typical “I’m not going to Michigan” crap and personal attacks on you because you make sense! Of course, you can bet a large number of the replies will be without capitalization or punctuation with one run on sentence after another!
Don’t toke one you’ll be ok . If you get a false positive go to the nearest drug testing facility and pee in a bottle.
👍
I’ve been driving high on weed every day for 30 years and have never been in an accident. Cars,trucks,boats,motorcycles, everything. Stoned as a bat with zero problems.
Lmfao
real freakin smart !!!! legalize pot then worry about driver’s being stoned behind the wheel. what the hell did you think was going to happen!!!
Too bad you don’t see the bigger picture in this privacy infringement. We have lost so much of our privacy rights – little by little – that people don’t recognize or comprehend that gvnt, corps want to know EVERYTHING about everyone. People like you are like sheep wanting to be led and herded. Too baaahhhhd.
JD nailed the core issue here. Pot has nothing to do with this, we have constitutional rights, use them or lose them.
Unless there is immunity to the government as there is in most states.
Please stay North of the Mason Dixon Line!!!
Josh, I also live in Michigan. This is what gets me “Submitting to the test can lead to a false positive, but refusing the test may result in a civil infraction.” A “Civil Infraction” ? It’s still a ticket you have to pay. We even got police commanders in our state who break the law. They commit perjury, just to give you a police record. In Ohio they do it right to your face, Michigan cops are more subtle in their actions.
Be ok if state had money to pay up can’t even give you good water too drink.
Because it’s been legalized doesn’t mean anything. Thc stays in your system for a long time and the effects only about 4 hours. I see lawsuits headed that way.
It’s not for truckers. It’s so they can check for Driving while high because weed is legal in Michigan.
My question is how are they going to implement this. They already don’t enforce no distractions while driving. Or the speed limit.
Why are they not worried about alcohol? Why don’t they stake out bars at night?
Government officials never worry about or enforce alcohol laws because they themselves are alcoholics or at least heavy drinkers. It’s the same with smoking laws. All the legislators who lobby against smoking are the ones who always have a “drink” in their hand at their fund raiser parties but don’t smoke so they attack what they don’t like and never touch what they love. WAKE UP, AMERICA!!!
What do you mean it’s not for truckers…it says right in the article that the general motoring public WILL NOT be subjected to tests!! Over and over it’s one witch hunt after another against CMV drivers! While I don’t condone driving under the influence, the mere fact that these tests are proven inaccurate you’re still going to subject drivers to it and screw with someone’s career!!!!!?
The general motoring public is next, it’s called the “boiling frog syndrome” eroding our rights one baby step at a time so they can ease it in.
This has nothing to do with freight. ALL Michigan drivers
Or, don’t do Drug’s?
Lol I hear this same statement every time a truck driver doesn’t get his way lol
This b/s about drugs is the very reason why no one wants to do this job. It is degrading enough to have to do a yearly drug test but now you might get pulled over at a weigh station and tested for no reason other than they have a quota to fill (state troopers). If DAC reports on drug tests have been dropped from ten years down to three what does that tell you about how many drivers have been lost to testing? We are a drugged out nation, plain and simple. If the job payed $100k per year I can see sticking around but for $45-50k at best (which is what the majority of drivers get) I don’t see it worth it.
Well as a motor carrier. I have decided to mark these states off of my list. MI, CA, OR, NY, MA, CT, NJ, WA.
After 25 years I’m really thinking about just getting out all together with all the over regulations. Let USDOT drive these trucks.
I hear you loud and clear.Trucking use to be a great gig.Make decent money and the freedom of the highway was great.Now it’s targeted by all the big outfits and there keeping the rates down. I’m making less today then 20 years ago. I’m to old to start another career. I’m from Detroit and I’m not looking forward to driving there.If you fell that mouth swab your getting arrested and you will never drive again. I no a guy who was hauling industrial hemp and the state police checked his fingers and he was dirty for weed and he never smoked weed.He has 3 kids and wife and no job.He is fighting trying to get his truck back now.He had to sell his house and all his 401K for his lawyers.He is training pit bulls in Dundee mi and k9 dogs for drug sniffing.This is in no way a good thing folks.Drive safe leave your phone alone.#Detroit
After you pay for a Lawyer, blood test, and Lab work, then you can go to court and prove your innocent. Sound good to me. And good luck sueing the state government
Lol, yep. I feel the same way after 43 yrs., of the bullcrap out here. Its their own fault for legalizing dope. Should never had done it to begin with.
I agree with you. My husband has found out what I’ve been trying to tell him. This time he was in a company vehicle ( I wish he’d been in his semi ) when he was rearended by a drunk , uninsured , group of undocumented guys at 65- 70 mph. He was 10 hrs from home and getting him home was difficult not to say the last 2 mths we’ve been having to fight work comp in another state these last 2 months to get drs or approval for his prescribed tests. He said that was it for him and he’s giving it up. Thank God. My previous husband was found dead beside his semi about 2500 miles from home. I can’t go through it again.
So a false positive is possible a third of the time and few officers are trained to administer this test but refusing results in a citation.
Are we in COMMUNIST COUNTRY? I thought United States of America was “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Like our national anthem says.
Looks like they are impeding our right to “LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.” As afforded by the Constitution of the United States of America.
This is a gross violation of the 4th Amendment.
Way to go MICHIGAN. You beat California to something.
Point of fact – “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is NOT in the Costitution; rather, it’s in the Declaration of Independence. Otherwise, I agree.
And for those who are woefully ignorant of the Constitution, I present Amendment IV:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Refuse a road side and volunteer for a blood test.
Billy, wen I read the article, I thought the same thing. I will refuse and suggest i get blood drawn at the nearest facility capable of doing so.
The false positive percentage was enough for me.
Yep, but in the meantime while u wait your vehicles will b impounded and will charge u 200.00 to get it back. While u wait to prove your innocence.
$200? Not sure if you’ve ever had a big truck get towed or impounded but your number is way too low. Last time I had a truck get impounded it was $1000.00 to get it out.
Lots of valid points. But if you get a false positive, you’ll in all likelihood be fired from your current job, and it’ll be quite a while before you get through the process of clearing your name via an alternate testing method and then the court battle to follow.
What do you for work/income in the meantime?
Exactly…..ur right.
33% false positives!!! This is insane! Good reason to stay out of Michigan. Fascist state. OOIDA – what are you doing about this?
OOIDA is doing exactly what they always do, nothing. They just keep cashing your checks.
Lol, this is true
In Louisiana you have to sign a consent form, which is full of legal terminology that I don’t understand, so I was arrested, refused to sign the consent form until they could get my court appointed attorney to explain the form to me before I sign it,bonded out before they could figure out what to do, and technically didn’t refuse and I didn’t fail and I’ve been fighting them in court over it for about two years. I don’t sign documents that I don’t understand and they couldn’t get the person they said that I was entitled to to come explain it to me before I went home. When I got home I was shook up and smoked some weed to calm down so it was too late to give them a urinalisis because I had smoked.at home, not driving. Until they come up with a test that can pinpoint if you’re high right then,or if you smoked a week ago, I don’t see how they will be able to enforce these laws.if you’re drinking and driving they can tell if you’re drunk right then or not. We can put a man on the moon but can’t tell when you smoked a joint? Please.
For the people that are saying it’s because weed is now legal in Michigan well weed is legal in alot of states and weed stays in your system for weeks high or not so how is a roadside test going to prove anything?
Thank you. I agree but something is wrong with those making such stupid laws
Exactly…and also Truckers in Michigan aren’t anywhere near the majority or ppl who voted to have it legal!! I wanted it legal, yet I haven’t smoked since 2013…I think it’s BS to imprison people for it, any way you shake it it’s better than alcohol!!!!
Marijuana, while legal in many states, is still illegal at the federal level. CDL holders (truck drivers) are regulated at the federal level, and must abide by the federal laws. Even if you reside in a weed-legal state and run intrastate, you can still get in trouble if you get popped with it in your system.
Best bet: If you smoke weed regularly, consider a job outside of truck driving; if you drive, don’t smoke it. Period.
And federal supercedes state, so still how can that just do truckdrivers and only b 1/3 rd, correct and legal ?
It’s not about smoking weed, it’s about the false positives and getting in trouble with ur job, while trying to prove your innocence!
Im telling you from experience ive driven otr for 30 years guys there is no room in what we do to be impared by a chemical period i have no problem submitting to a test anytime anyplace if we would all stand up and have some pride instead of arguing we could get the hours of service changed to somthing like the way it used to be
The only way to get back is if everyone stops hauling. And like yeah that’s going to happen. To many scabbies just keep on trucking
Exactly
As right as you are. The problem is that (at least in Texas) they don’t do the blood test at your car. They have to arrest you, impound your car, and do the blood test at the county jail infirmary.
This takes a lot of time, and you have to get your car out of impound.
If your in a loaded semi imagine the mess a false positive is going to make after they arrest you and you truck (and the customer’s cargo) is stranded on the side of the highway.
Yes I agree….IF the tests were proven to be accurate, but a 33% inaccurate rate is ridiculous!!!
The issue I see is them using this when ever they want too. Which will lead to a extensive amount of lawsuits that the state really can not afford to pay. Do not see this program lasting very long.
And the beat goes on. I save all my money, will be opening a coffee shop soon. But small businesses have there hoops as well. Our government can’t balance a checkbook, but man, are they good at making up new laws.
New laws to spend the money ur saving.
As long as it ain’t a blood test idc .. you’ll have to shoot me before anyone gets a needle in me
They will wrestle you down and force it on you.
I’m pretty sure they LL use a dart for you
Well, first of all there is NO CLAUSE in the U.S. Constitution that states “Life. Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.
Therefore, you have just aknowleged you do not know the Constitution, and therrgore are not qualified to have an opinion.
Life means prison liberty means Paris, pursuit of happiness means finding the perfect partner
According to SAMSHA(us government). 2015 6.5 million drug test. 99.9% accuracy they say. .1% of 6.5 miliion. 6500 lives ruined per year. Any questions?
Well why dont u test the 4 wheelers out. ? I just past one in a car puking on the side of interstate. I94 east bound , in michigan.. october 4th, 2019….
Does this mean they want to inoculate us ? I thought I already had my booster shots.
I do know my rights. I have the right to gossip at any given time. I have the right to have bare arms on any summer day. I have the right to eat chocolate with or without ice cream. I have the right to go bare foot on any public lawn. I have the right to smile at anyone I choose. I have the right to complain, about something. I just have a whole lot of rights. I have a good idea that I am right even when I’m wrong I have a right to be right. I just simply have rights of all kinds even if I make them up they are right. So I have the Rights.