Mobile Drug Testing (MDT), also known as Roadside Drug Testing (RDT), is a roadside test for drivers, similar to a Random Breath Test. By using saliva sticks, MDT tests for ecstasy, cannabis, cocaine, and methamphetamine (including speed and ice).
Drug driving is a serious offence - the official crime is driving with the presence of an illicit drug. It is also an offence if you refuse to take a drug test. Penalties can include loss of licence, fines and even prison terms.
Unlike Random Breath Tests (RBTs), MDTs don’t test how much of the drug is in your body, which would give an indication as to how affected a driver is. Instead, MDTs only test for the presence of these drugs – the crime is just having them in your system, whether or not it’s affecting your driving.
WHAT HAPPENS IN AN MDT?
If you are pulled over for an MDT, you will have to do a mouth swab. The tests detects the presence of MDMA, cannabis, cocaine, and methamphetamine in your saliva. If the test comes up positive for one of those four drugs, you’ll be taken to a roadside testing van or bus, or back to a police station to provide a saliva sample for a second test.
If you fail that second test, you will immediately have a 24-hour driving ban placed on you, your car will be left at the side of the road, and the test will be sent to a laboratory for further analysing.
If you pass the second test, you’re able to return to your vehicle and continue driving — but your sample will still be sent to a laboratory to be analysed further. If it’s negative, you won’t hear from the police again.
If the laboratory confirms the positive roadside result, police will contact you and charge you with driving with the presence of an illegal drug. If this happens, your license will be suspended, and you’ll also have to pay a fine.
NSW Police can test drivers for drugs anytime or anywhere, for no reason at all – MDT is random.
However, there are some other reasons that the Police might decide to conduct an MDT, including: something about you or your vehicle makes a police officer suspicious of you, a police officer knows you as a person who uses drugs, you are driving oddly or dangerously, or if you are in an accident.
If you test positive for illicit drugs and have been driving erratically, you might cop another charge - driving under the influence (DUI). DUI is a more serious offence than regular drug driving, and you could lose your license for a longer amount of time, be required to pay a larger fine, and may even face jail time.
Remember that if you drive with the presence of an illegal drug, your insurance and registration are null and void. This could have significant financial repercussions if you have an accident.
HOW DO I PASS AN MDT?
The only way to ensure that you will pass a MDT is to ensure that you are free from the influence of any drugs. The numbers provided below are a rough guide, there is still no sure way to tell if an amount is still in your system.
Other factors such as hydration, body mass and the potency of the substance are also still all relevant to the time the drug will take to pass through your system. The more regularly you use a drug, the longer it will remain detectable in MDTs and other tests
Approximate times that drugs remain detectable in your system
Cannabis: 12 – 24 hours
MDMA & Methamphetamine: 24 – 48 hours
Cocaine – 14 – 24 hours
WHAT ARE MY RIGHTS?
Remember: you do not have to tell police anything except your name, date of birth and address as well as showing your driver’s licence. If they ask you about your drug use, you do not have to tell them anything, even if the MDT comes up positive. The best advice is to be polite and respectful, and to say as little as possible. At every stage of the legal/arrest process, you have a right to silence. However, in some circumstances, for example traffic offences, you do have to give the police some information - your name, address and license.
If you do tell Police that you consumed or self-administered drugs the previous day, they will record this information on what’s known as a Fact Sheet. Fact Sheets are submitted to the court and usually seen by magistrates as an accurate reflection of events leading to you being charged. Remember how the saying goes: “Everything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law”. So keep it under wraps, at least until you speak to a lawyer.
Passengers in the vehicle are not subject to MDT unless: 1) the passenger is supervising a learner driver, or 2) if the police reasonably believe the person was driving the vehicle, such as witnessing the drivers changing seats prior to approaching police. Additionally, passengers are under no obligation to tell the police about the driver’s drug use.
If a driver does submit an MDT and result comes back negative, the police do not have the power to force the driver to undergo further testing, such as blood and/or urine sample testing.
However, if you are unable to provide a sample or refuse to provide a sample the police can require you to provide blood for drug testing. Police can also require a driver or person sitting next to a learner driver to undergo blood and urine testing if the learner driver has been involved in a potentially fatal accident.
Unreliable Testing Regime?
MDT does not test for drug impairment. It tests for the presence of drugs. The test may come up positive for drugs, even several days after using them. It’s hard to know how many days after using you might test positive.
Drugs stay in people’s bodies for different lengths of time, depending on things like gender, weight and general health. Drugs also tend to stay longer in people’s bodies if they are living with kidney disease, liver disease or cirrhosis of the liver.
A one-off use of a drug will pass through your body more quickly than if you have used for several days in a row. When thinking about how long drugs stay in your body, consider that small amounts may remain within your system for more than a week.
Recent research conducted at the University of Sydney found that the two saliva swab tests used by NSW police, the Securetec DrugWipe and the Draeger DrugTest 5000, consistently returned incorrect results for cannabis. Researchers found that the tests gave a false positive for THC/ cannabis when there was none up to 10% of the time. They also found
that when THC was present in the test subjects’ saliva, the tests returned a false negative result for up to 16% of the time. Make of this what you will, but the one thing we know is that the technology isn’t perfect!
MDTS LEADING TO SEARCHES
A police officer can search a person if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that the person has a prohibited drug in their possession. They can also search a vehicle if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that it contains a prohibited drug, or that one of the passengers has a prohibited drug in their possession or control.
A positive drug test may constitute reasonable grounds to conduct a search of a person, their belongings and their vehicle. However, police can only ask the person to remove outer layers of clothing, hats and footwear. The police cannot conduct a strip search in a place other than a police station unless the seriousness and urgency of the circumstances makes the search necessary.
Police also have additional powers to search persons upon or after arrest. As noted above, police may arrest a person who refuses a drug test or whose sample tests positive. Police can also search a person when they are arrested, or after their arrest, if they suspect on reasonable grounds that the person is carrying a prohibited drug, drug-related items or any other objects that may be connected to an alleged crime or provide evidence of a crime having been committed.
As with all searches, we suggest that you tell the police officer that you don’t consent to any search, ask that they record this, and then comply with the search if they persist.