Mending the anti-drug ordinance is a display of institutional ineptitude meant to mask the fact that besides populist attempts and unrealistic measures, the government is not capable of much in truly important matters.
What does the modification, intended to put the cart before the horse, as Prime Minister Ciolacu stated?
According to Emergency Ordinance 84/2024, not only the driver who tested positive in the rapid drug test, but also the one who refuses this type of testing and directly requests a blood analysis would instantly lose their license. And the time until the results were issued could reach almost a year.
The Thursday amendment establishes that the driver who refuses the Drugtest, as well as the one who tests positive in the rapid test, will only have to wait 72 hours for the blood test results.
If these results do not arrive within these three days, the license is returned. And if when the results eventually come, after who knows how long, they confirm the presence of drugs, the police will take away the license again, if they find the driver, of course.
So, we will have two situations: if the driver is indeed under the influence, after 72 hours they regain their driving right, possibly with the same behaviors, and have time to disappear. If the driver was not under the influence, for 3 days they were the victim of an abuse, the practical consequences of which only they know.
Moreover, it is not clear at all how the license will be returned, especially if it is retained in a different locality than the driver's residence. I witnessed a comical yet sad adventure to retrieve a license detained in a city other than the county seat.
When the driver went after a few days with proof from the court contesting the violation, an authentic police investigation began regarding the whereabouts of the license, requiring a full day for location.
How will a license detained in Constanța reach the driver residing in Satu-Mare within 72 hours?
Remains to be seen, but the likelihood of meeting the deadline is low. This is because the physical retention of the plastic remains fundamental, when in fact, the sanction is the restriction of the right to drive regardless of where the plastic is physically located.
Normally, the plastic could remain with the holder, but the suspension of the right to drive should be immediately recorded and canceled in a database accessible to any police officer at any time. Because such a database does not exist, we continue to chase after papers, plastics, copies, as in the last century.
How probable is it to meet the 72-hour deadline?
We will see, but there are counties that do not have properly equipped forensic medicine laboratories for such testing and need to send the samples elsewhere.
And even in the largest ones, it is not very good. Gabriel Gorun, a forensic medicine specialist at the "Mina Minovici" INML in the capital, stated in an interview with News.ro earlier this year that the institution uses machines that are 17 years old, overwhelmed ten times by the large number of samples sent for analysis.
What is the risk of error?
Again, difficult to evaluate. Police testing devices have so far shown very high errors. According to the Superior Council of Forensic Medicine, last year 38% of positive tests were contradicted by blood analyses. So, over a third of tested drivers were left without a license for months innocently.
On the other hand, there is no precise list of medications that can cause rapid test positivity. According to forensic doctors, it could be even simple painkillers or medications used in the treatment of chronic diseases such as diabetes.
Not everyone will be tested this way, only those the officer deems necessary. Do we live in a country where we can trust the intelligence, professionalism, and integrity of most police officers? I believe everyone has experiences that can provide a conclusive answer. Moreover, one of the explanations for the erratic results can also be incorrect use due to insufficient training.
Therefore, each driver is at the mercy of a police officer, no matter how correct, professional, and intelligent they may be, exposed to a device with an uncontrollable risk of error and without knowing if the pill they took will trigger a positive result or not. This was valid even before Emergency Ordinance 84, but extending this shadow to those who refuse the rapid test and directly request blood samples has shed light on all the deficiencies of a dysfunctional system.
The cart is broken and the horses are nowhere near
It is certain that the state's response to the effects of drug use, not only while driving, must be intensified, especially towards traffickers, but it seems it cannot be.
However, it should look entirely different. Instead of rushing with a stupid regulation, still patched up stupidly, the Ministry of Internal Affairs would have done well to start by analyzing the causes of the huge number of positive tests later contradicted, a number they even tried to hide at the request of SpotMedia.ro under Law 544.
And, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, clarify the issue of potentially risky pills and make the INML functional. These are well-known issues but ignored.
If Prime Minister Ciolacu believes that the new Emergency Ordinance has once again put the cart before the horse, he is in a huge mistake. In fact, the cart is broken, and the horses were not even close to it.