HIGH-POWERED DRUG SCANNER TOO POWERFUL?

Ion Technology Draws Civil Rights Complaints

DES MOINES, Iowa (APBnews.com) --Supersensitive scanners that detect
microscopic levels of drug or bomb residue can be found operating
unobtrusively in airports and border crossings around the world.

But in Iowa, some new and expanded uses for the scanners have prompted
several diverse groups -- from truck drivers to families of prison
inmates -- to question whether the drug-fighting technology violates
people's civil rights.

The ion scanners, which can be programmed to detect tiny molecular
substances including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and even bomb
material, are now being used by the state's corrections department to test
prison visitors.

At the same time, the state Department of Transportation (DOT) is using
scanners provided by the Iowa National Guard to randomly test truck drivers.

Officials: Keeping roadways safe

The officials responsible for both these tests say scanners are ridding the
roads of drugged truckers and the prisons of narcotics.

But civil libertarians believe the tests are unfair, mostly because the
devices are so sensitive that a person could test positive after
inadvertently brushing against something a drug user previously touched,
such as money, faucets or gas pumps.

There also are concerns about the accuracy of the devices, especially after
the scanners registered false positives for two children who were visiting
relatives in jail.

The problems and fears have prompted calls to the Iowa Civil Liberties Union
(ICLU), mostly from people who believe they were falsely found to have drugs
on them when visiting prisons, ICLU officials said.

Hundreds tested over two days

The objections to the tests are even more intense among the trucking
community. In fact, the Iowa Motor Truck Association has called for a
meeting with the DOT to discuss the issue, and at the same time the topic
has been burning up the CB airwaves and trucker Internet forums.

"There is no reason to do this; I know of none," said Mont Rhoades, a former
trucker and moderator of a forum on the Web site www.truck.net. "The
national average for drug abuse for truck drivers is 1.3 percent. The
national average for the population in general is 13 percent. There is no
valid reason to do [the test]."

Truckers, who have been subjected to the random, roadside tests for about a
year, were most recently tested at a weigh station in eastern Iowa on March
13 and 14.

Over the two days, 623 drivers out of 1,764 stopped were singled out for
testing.

Dogs inspect vehicles

The scanners were provided to the DOT-organized event by the National Guard,
under a federal law that allows it to participate in civilian anti-drug
efforts.

DOT spokeswoman Dena M. Gray-Fisher said the selected drivers were taken
into a building at the station, where they presented their licenses and
logbooks. Those items were then passed under the ion scanner's "sniffer," a
device that looks like a hand-held vacuum.

The data were then fed into the main scanning machine.

Forty-six of the 623 drivers tested positive for traces of drugs,
Gray-Fisher said. Police and drug dogs then inspected their vehicles. Six
drivers were eventually arrested for possessing small quantities of cocaine,
methamphetamine, marijuana and LSD, she said.

Prison visitation 'a privilege'

Gray-Fisher said that no one was arrested based solely on the results of the
ion scan. She said that the DOT only used the scanner to develop probable
cause to search further, and that arrests were only made when actual
drugs -- not scant traces -- were found.

"We're not using that as a basis to say that there's anything ... we do
legally just from [a] trace," she said. "It just gives us probable cause to
go to the next step."

The state prison system also says its tests are not used as the basis for
filing criminal charges against anyone, though they are used to temporarily
ban people from the prison.

Prison officials say these tests are beneficial for visitors because they
stop drugs from entering the prison without forcing guards to resort to
strip searches. They also say that keeping the prison secure comes before
visitors' privacy.

"Visiting in our facilities is a privilege; it's not a right that anybody's
got," said Department of Corrections Director W.L. "Kip" Kautzky. "And this
is a process that you have to go through much as you do if you drive and you
are stopped and you are required to take a Breathalyzer. If you refuse to
take the Breathalyzer or you otherwise fail, you have very clear sanctions.

"From our prospective, this process is very little different from that
approach."

Microscopic traces found on boy

Kautzky said the testing, which began in a few prisons several months ago
and has now spread to all nine state institutions, is conducted each day on
randomly selected visitors.

He did not have the precise number of people scanned in all the state
prisons. But at the Clarinda Corrections Facility, 2,200 people have so far
been scanned. Twenty-five tested positive, officials said.

Last week a small media storm started when a 4-year-old boy tested positive
for microscopic drug residue as he entered the prison to visit his father.
Under the prison system's scanner rules, the boy and the adult who came with
him cannot visit the prison for 30 days. After that, they are then
restricted to supervised, no-contact visits for the next 90 days.

Fears of being branded a user

Such stern sanctions based only on scanner results trouble ICLU spokesman
Ben Stone.

He believes the tests are unfair because subjects innocently could have
become contaminated with enough drug residue to record a positive result.

"What you have here is not a machine that detects drug users," he said.
"It's a machine that, provided the science is sound, detects people who have
drug residue on their hands. And those are two different things.

"You know, it sounds bizarre, but the number of molecules that are necessary
to trigger this thing are just infinitesimal."

Stone was so wary about random contamination that he said he wouldn't enter
a prison himself for fear he would be branded as a drug user if he
accidentally had trace amounts on him.

"You can't prove you didn't have drugs; it's invisible," he said. "I would
not visit a prison as an attorney. If they found some traces of drugs, there
is nothing I could do to exonerate myself."

Money tested for average reading

Stone also said he disagreed with the DOT position that the tests are
appropriate to develop probable cause.

"Until the science is established, and we know how well calibrated these
machines are, there is no way a reading should trigger a search," he said.

Authorities using the tests say there is no reason for people to worry about
showing a positive result after becoming inadvertently contaminated.

National Guard Maj. Mike Kuehn said the agency has tried to avoid such
trouble by testing the device on hundreds of thousands of dollars, both in
circulation and newly minted. He said that because almost all money in
circulation is contaminated with microscopic traces of drug residue, the
National Guard used the cash to determine the average amount of drugs found
on money.

He said the National Guard's scanner operators only recommend to police that
a further search be done if the amount of drugs found on the scanner is
above average. Kautzky said that the state Department of Corrections also
makes allowances for the small traces that may have come from the
environment.

'It spells harassment for all'

In addition to concerns about inadvertent contamination, opponents of the
tests complain about the device's accuracy.

Kautzky said that despite a few incidents, the technology is accurate.

"This is really very high-quality technology. But all systems, whether it's
here or in Pennsylvania or wherever, everybody struggles with that middle
ground, that gray area where some particular visitor comes in and for
whatever reason they can test positive," he said. "I think we have had some
10 cases, either with children or with others, and it was questionable."

Despite the assurances that precautions are taken and that the tests are
solid, the forums on trucker.net were hot with stories about false
accusations. Truckers also were afraid that a trace amount picked up
inadvertently could get them fired when authorities notified their
employers.

"All in all, it spells harassment for all of us," Rhodes said in a message
to his group about the story of one trucker he believes was falsely accused.
"This man is an indication of what may happen to every driver that moves
through Iowa. And I'm not even given to paranoia."