NEW TEST CHECKS FOR DRUGGED DRIVERS

2 City Officers Trained To Detect Impaired Motorists

Two Wausau police officers are using a new 45-minute, 12-step test on the
city's streets to evaluate the drugs a driver has used and how it affects
judgment on the road. A drugged driver can be just as lethal on the roads
as one who has been drinking, says the state Department of Transportation,
which coordinates training on the test for police in Wisconsin. Although
Wisconsin law prohibits a blood-alcohol level exceeding 0.10 percent, the
state has no similar standard for drugs detected through a blood or urine
test. A decade ago, authorities focused on people who got behind the wheel
drunk. Now officials are rallying against drivers who use drugs, including
over-the-counter medications, that impair their ability to observe, react
and stay alert on the road.

Part of that effort is training police such as Wausau Patrol Officers Ben
Bliven and Matt Barnes to become drug recognition experts, or DREs. Drugged
drivers can be prosecuted for driving while impaired or for reckless or
negligent driving, if it can be proved. The results of tests by DREs give
officials evidence that a driver's judgment was impaired.

Bliven and Barnes are two of 90 police officers in the state and the only
ones in Marathon County who have expertise in drug evaluation and
classification. Drug recognition experts use the evaluation after a traffic
stop or while investigating a crash to observe and record signs and
symptoms that show the person's driving was affected by drugs in his or her
system. As more officers are trained and can testify in court as experts,
roads will become safer because offenders will be apprehended, Bliven and
Barnes said. "We want people to know it's not OK to take drugs and drive,"
Barnes said.

People don't realize that even painkillers or other medications prescribed
by their doctor can seriously affect the way they drive, Barnes said. "Talk
to your doctor," Bliven said. "Find out how the medication is going to
affect you." The University of Tennessee Medical Center analyzed the urine
samples of crash-injured drivers for a variety of drugs and found that 40
percent had evidence of drugs in their system, according to the officer's
training materials for the program.

Bliven and Barnes were selected to train in the five-week course where they
learned how a person's appearance, behavior, performance in psychophysical
tests, eye exams and vital signs can tell them if they used drugs other
than alcohol, such as marijuana, inhalants, stimulants and sedatives. For
example, Bliven and Barnes perform the typical field sobriety tests but
also check muscle tone, pupil size, pulse and body temperature to detect
any drugs in a person's system. A person using a stimulant will have very
tense muscles, while a narcotics user's muscles will be relaxed, they said.
They also inspect a person's mouth and nose for signs of drugs, such as
heat bumps or a green tinge on the tongue.

The city of Wausau will not be the only municipality to benefit from
Bliven's and Barnes' new expertise. They plan to teach their fellow
officers tips on when they can use the test. The Police Department also
will be reimbursed by the state when it helps nearby departments arrest
drugged drivers.