Device Detects Drug Use Via Fingerprints 224
cylonlover writes "Fingerprints have been used to confirm or determine peoples' identities for over one hundred years now, but new technology is allowing them to be put to another use — drug testing. Intelligent Fingerprinting (a spin-off company affiliated with the UK's University of East Anglia) has just unveiled a prototype portable device that can detect the presence of illicit drugs or other substances in a person's system by analyzing the sweat in their fingerprints."
How about for paramedics? (Score:4, Insightful)
Get called out for somebody collapsing in the street. Press their sweaty fingers to a reader. System reads back any known medical history for that person, as well as any interesting chemicals detected by the reader.
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To be fair you can usually identify a genuine collapse from a DOAB. The empty Stella tins and unkempt appearance are sufficient.
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"Drunk On A Bus". Paramedics often get called to them because bus companies have tend to have policies where drivers aren't allowed to wake up "sleeping" passengers in case they become violent, or are actually ill.
Re:How about for paramedics? (Score:5, Insightful)
Get pulled over for a burned out tail light. You're tired and look a bit under the weather. Cop presses your sweaty fingers to the reader. You go to jail for a joint you smoked 5 days ago.
Re:How about for paramedics? (Score:5, Insightful)
What kind of dystopian hell-hole do you live in where you can be jailed for having traces of drug metabolites in your system? Even Iran isn't *that* bad...
Re:How about for paramedics? (Score:4, Insightful)
America. Home of the Free, Land of the Brave.
Re:How about for paramedics? (Score:5, Funny)
Land of the Flea, Home of the Slave?
To the tune of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A.":
I was born in America,
Where I'm often told I'm free.
I voted for the piece of shit
who told that lie to me.
And I'll gladly stand up next to you
At the all-you-can-eat buffet.
I can't afford
To move abroad...
Trapped in the U.S.A.
I can't afford
To move abroad...
Trapped in the U.S.A.
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Re:How about for paramedics? (Score:5, Interesting)
While not necessarily going to jail, you'll at least be going on foot for quite a while in Germany as this will cost you your driver's licence. Yes, even if that joint was a week ago. They won't take the licence because you were under the influence, but because even thinking about taking drugs shows that you are morally unfit for driving. Godwin's law will be invoked in 3... 2... 1...
Re:How about for paramedics? (Score:4, Funny)
While not necessarily going to jail, you'll at least be going on foot for quite a while in Germany as this will cost you your driver's licence. Yes, even if that joint was a week ago. They won't take the licence because you were under the influence, but because even thinking about taking drugs shows that you are morally unfit for driving. Godwin's law will be invoked in
drei...zwei...ein...
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Nazi!
Wait, too soon.
Re:How about for paramedics? (Score:5, Informative)
What kind of dystopian hell-hole do you live in where you can be jailed for having traces of drug metabolites in your system? Even Iran isn't *that* bad...
Victoria, Australia [trafficlaw.com.au]
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Well, keywords are "driving *under* influence", right?
Re:How about for paramedics? (Score:4, Informative)
Well, keywords are "driving *under* influence", right?
No ...
driving or being in charge of a motor vehicle when your saliva or blood contains any trace of illicit drugs
Peace,
Andy.
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Well, then it's simply wrong, very overreaching and kinda useless for main reason - avoid tragic accidents on streets.
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Do you have a problem with the TSA? Well let me ask you this: Do you want your children to be drugged by terrorist predators who are taking our jobs?
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Well, then it's simply wrong, very overreaching and kinda useless for main reason - avoid tragic accidents on streets.
That might not be the main reason.
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The problem is the test would only be probably cause for an analysis of whether you are intoxicated or not, but it would probably not be used that way. The police already use metabolite-based tests to "prove" you're a cannabis user, even though the 60-day old metabolites prove nothing about whether you're intoxicated.
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I remember reading about a case where someone's urine tested positive for cocaine. The police tried to use that as evidence of "possession", because the person "possessed" their blood. A truly twisted way of looking at things, as the individual did not physically have drugs to justify charges.
I don't know what ever happened to the case, nor do I remember which state is was in.
Never underestimate the willingness of a jackboot drug-war official to pervert the system to "do justice."
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There are numerous states in the USA which have metabolite laws. Arizona being the first one that pops into mind.
Re:How about for paramedics? (Score:5, Informative)
That's how it works in Sweden. You go to Amsterdam over the weekend, smoke a couple of joints, come back to Sweden, hit the bars the next weekend, a cop sees you on the street and thinks you look "tired" (I have myself been threatened with arrest for drug use on my way home from work on a friday night when a police officer approached me and stated I looked, that's right, "tired". A joke I've heard from Swedish cannabis smokers is that Sweden is the only country in the world where you can get arrested for being happy or sleep-deprived), arrests you, you get to urinate into a cup, they find 11-COOH-THC or 11-OH-THC in your urine and that's it, you just got a conviction for drug use on your record.
The reason we have this system you ask? In the 80s the right-wing parties were falling behind in polls so they started ranting about rampant drug use and how use itself needed to be made illegal (despite the fact that at the time reported drug use among Swedes was at a multi-decade low), as always the left decided to join in on the "OMG DRUGS!!1" panic and a law was passed making drug use illegal (prior to that regular users were only arrested for possession, not use). A few years later they realized the law was rarely used since you could only be fined for drug use (which meant the police weren't allowed to force you to take a drug test) so they promptly added the possibility of jail time for drug use.
Why hasn't this been abolished? Because our politicians who deal with drug-related matters don't know anything about it beyond the political consensus that we need to "send the right signals" to people who use drugs (or might start using drugs) and happily dismiss the opinions of actual experts. Welcome to Sweden, where "signals" are more important than sanity (I don't remember which politician it was but one of them famously stated that she thought it was more important to send the right signals than it was to save lives).
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I don't have to have a license for my tv's yet.
FTFY.
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Neither do I... You don't need any sort of licence to own a TV in the UK.
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DINGDINGDING! It is NOT repeat NOT because politicians are ignorant that these laws exist. It is precisely because of the opposite. They know there's money to be made. There's usually some kickbacks from Big Pharma in there someplace, too, because MMJ is a treatment for so many ills that are typically treated with expensive prescription medications which are actually less effective and nearly all of which have nasty side effects, and most users will encounter one or more of them, and there are further pills
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http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/Tennessee_First_State_to_Allow_TSA_Highway_Random_Search_Program_111108 [allgov.com]
If a drug dog can walk "around" your car, expect something like this to be tested soon.
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What kind of dystopian hell-hole do you live in where you can be jailed for having traces of drug metabolites in your system? Even Iran isn't *that* bad...
He lives in Arizona or one of the other states which have a drugged driving law that includes metabolites.
"In Arizona, it is unlawful for a person to drive a vehicle (1) while under the influence of any drug, or any combination of liquor and/or drugs if the person is impaired to the slightest degree, OR (2) while there is any drug or its metabolite in the person's body. Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. 28-1381(A)(1), (3) (West 2010)
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In South Dakota, testing positive for a drug is considered possession.
How fucked up is that?
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What kind of dystopian hell-hole do you live in where you can be jailed for having traces of drug metabolites in your system?
Nine U.S. states [nih.gov] actually explicitly ban 'internal possession' of alcohol - alcohol detectable by blood, breath, or urine test - by individuals under 21.
Several of those states, oddly enough, make it legal for under-21s to consume alcohol in specific settings (often in their home, or under the supervision of adults or guardians.) Missouri has no restrictions on consumption by under-21s, but does bar internal possession.
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www.washingtonpost.com/local/expired-license-plates-in-dc-could-land-you-in-jail/2011/10/11/gIQAJjdhdL_story.html
The article you linked says that particular district may be the ONLY place in the world where they do it, and even then only after the plate's been expired for 30 days. I have to agree with GP, there was more going on if this guy really got cuffed after being pulled over for a 10 day expired license plate.
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The plates don't expire, a registration sticker on the plate expires. Some states put the sticker on the window. As long as your registration never expires and no one ever steals your plates, you will have the same plates from the time the vehicle is issued until the time when it is crushed.
The standards are very different, however, state to state. In California they're not supposed to pull you over until literally months after your registration sticker is expired, although they will do so anyway if they wa
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For the same reason we have tax discs. They replace the whole plate every year, we replace a small piece of paper.
You'd still really have to fail the attitude test in a big way to be arrested for an out-of-date tax disc. The vehicle licensing authority post out a reminder about a month before it expires in any case, and it takes about two minutes to renew online.
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No, we do a similar thing as you, although implementation varies from state to state. In some states, there's a sticker that gets put on the plate, in others, it's just the actual registration card that gets changed, but AFAIK, there's no place in the U.S. where the actual plate changes year to year. As another poster pointed out, the main difference really is that here, plates are usually ass
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Somebody have to make plates, and they don't work for free...
I thought prisoners made license plates... and they do work for free.
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Can you imagine if you _did_ live in Iran and they had this technology?
Is there some reason to believe that the Iranians are more committed to the war on drugs than the United States?
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You go to jail for a joint you smoked 5 days ago.
...or the poppy seed bagel you ate for lunch!
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Why go to jail when you can get your newborn baby taken away? for the same bagel....
http://www.wkbn.com/mostpopular/story/Baby-Taken-After-Mom-Eats-Bagel/OhvLyWdMv0ytIACx7vGE1w.cspx [wkbn.com]
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Umm... if you can prove that a poppy seed bagel can cause a positive test result, doesn't that mean that you're still innocent until proven guilty otherwise? I mean, that leaves enough room for doubt, right?
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You must be new here. The American "justice system" is nothing of the sort. You've got metabolites in your system, you've been doing illegal drugs, end of story. Enjoy your fine/jail time.
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I mean, that leaves enough room for doubt, right?
Sure; but by the time you've proved it you've already had your whole week ruined and it's cost you a lot of effort and money.
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Yes, and I'm sure your public defender will vigorously pursue that option at your hearing, right after he meets you for the first time in the courtroom.
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When the Fed buys assets, they aren't creating debt for the United States.
No? Where does the money come from that they are using to buy said assets? I suggest you take a basic course in economics.
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No? Where does the money come from that they are using to buy said assets? I suggest you take a basic course in economics.
It comes from the tip of a pen, of course! Well, these days it comes from strokes on a keyboard, but the concept is the same. They take your asset and add a corresponding value to your bank account; no government debt involved.
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The Ayn Rand that used Social Security and Medicare? How did she make it past all that skull-cracking government oppression to do that?
Or that you didn't smoke (Score:2)
There are trace amounts of cocaine on a huge percentage of US Currency (a percentage that gets higher as you get closer to DC). I wonder about false positives from illicit substances that were not, in fact, used by the scanned individual.
On a side-note, I don't recall any Trek episodes about tricorder false positives... (except for deliberate ones)
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Maybe get over that idea that you should be able to tell others what to do if it does not affect you
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Maybe then please don't complain that you have traces of illegal drugs in your blood stream?
I can agree that limits of traces should be set and they should be highly scientific. I know that lof of laws against driving under influence has no limits set how big trace should be to be guilty, there's quite visible morality influence in all this. However, if someone is driving under influence - sorry, but you are busted.
Re:How about for paramedics? (Score:5, Insightful)
Pot is in your system for thirty days, the effect of the high is a few hours.
By your logic we should be able to give a driver a dui ticket for a beer he had two weeks ago.
Frankly you dont have a right to tell anyone what they do with their body, so maybe you should stfu.
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Maybe then don't smoke joint?
And don't shake hands with anyone who has ever smoke a joint or who has shaken hands with anyone who has ever smoked a joint.
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Save patient, get popped for drug use because patient was loaded with heroine.
It should be interesting to see the results of the test for cocaine or cash as well. The test for opiates or bagels will be a good one.
These people can go to hell (Score:2, Interesting)
Seriously, I can only hope that the people at UEA DIAF because a fireman was suspended for having a joint a week ago, because their technology made it easier to drug test them.
If you're working to support the war on drugs, you're a money-grabbing fascist. Go and research how to make drugs that can't be detected by sniffer dogs and make the law a farce and we might see a change in them.
Re:These people can go to hell (Score:5, Insightful)
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No, it's the "war on sin". Because some people think they are morally superior because they endorse the putting in cages of other people who like to relax with the help of pharmacology.
A potentially valid point, but the witty tagline has less impact because it doesn't respond to the grandparent's point. I don't care if you "relax with the help of pharmacology" in your own living room. I care very much if you "relax with the help of pharmacology" while driving. Using technology to interfere with the former is a questionable use of resources driven by questionable motives within a questionable moral framework. Using technology to interfere with the latter is a legitimate public interes
Not sin. Profit. (Score:2)
It's universally accepted that Prohibition was a failure, and WHY it was a failure. So why haven't we repealed the War on Drugs the same way alcohol prohibition was repealed?
Because Prohibitionists hadn't figured out how to make a profit off of Prohibition when it was passed.
Whereas now you have both corporate interests (for-profit prisons) and labor (prison guard unions) supporting the War on Drugs because for them it means money and jobs. A lot of money.
And municipalities make a fortune off of fines, ma
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I've had the opportunity to know quite a few commercial pilots, and at least two-thirds of them were heavy drinkers. The kind of guys who thought nothing of putting down 8-10 cocktails before an 8 AM flight the next day.
Even if they are not "drunk" in a way detectable by a breathalyzer, they still are suffering from some kind of impairment as they are operating on reduced, poor quality sleep and whatever physical and cognitive impairment comes from even a mild hangover.
The same is true of nurses and docto
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I can think of no such circumstances where an actual test for impairment at the relevant time wouldn't do a better job.
Make 'em play a video game. Make 'em do a dry run of whatever. Measure their reflexes. Whatever makes sense for the task at hand. The technology exists for essentially every task.
If you're impaired, I don't care WHY you're impaired. What matters is that you're impaired. Testing for some causes and not others is obvious evidence that the impairment isn't what the people ordering the tests ca
Great Ford! (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh brave new world, what have you become? Just look at you, we were all supposed to turn into Ford worshiping, drug driven sex fiends, instead we do the exact opposite!
Re:Great Ford! (Score:5, Insightful)
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I don't think you've been high enough times then.
Not Fingerprints (Score:2)
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Yes, but if you RTFA you'll see they use your fingerprints as a means of ID'ing the sample. So yes, you could test the sweat from anywhere, but by testing the fingerprint (really fingertip is probably a better word) they can link the results to a unique identifier. In the world of drug testing this is very important as one, people like to try to cheat the tests, two, people could use the test to frame others, and any discrepencies in the process could get the result overturned on legal grounds. (IANAL, h
Shake hands with a junkie (Score:4, Interesting)
... false positive.
Scrub hands thoroughly just before the test: you're in the clear.
TFA says the system is impossible to cheat. I'd like to see this presumptuous statement put to the test and stats released to believe it.
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1. Wash hands.
2. Apply superglue to fingertips.
3. Wash again.
It sets instantly on contact with skin and forms a water-impermiable layer to prevent fresh sweat getting through. The only problem is you might be too clean, and a well-programmed tester would recognise an attempted fraud from the complete lack of sweat to test.
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Next step, being a klutz with superglue becomes a crime.
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who would have thought that one of the first signs of diabetes (dry hands and feet caused by inadequate circulation to sweat glands) would turn out to be a unknowing champion for personal liberties.
No wonder the UEA is keen on climate change... (Score:2)
More heat, more sweat!
Next Step (Score:2)
The next step to take advantage of this technological development is to scan for the profiles of drugs like serotonin, dopamine etc. in order to assess whether the subject (or should one say object?) is planning to, i.e., hijack an aircraft. Of course, in the US, the national security argument will take care of further improving the mechanism up to the level of continuous 24/7 scanning of all the sheeple.
CC.
Fingerprints (Score:2)
Fingerprints have been used to confirm or determine peoples' identities for over one hundred years now
I suppose that's technically accurate, but a better phrasing would probably have been "throughout recorded history".
This Could Be a Good Thing (Score:2)
My cat would get me busted (Score:2)
I'm giving him steroids for inflammation and barbiturates for seizures, both of which get all over my hands cuz he doesn't exactly cooperate. I don't have a personal prescription for either, so I guess I'd be flagged as a drug abuser if my fingerprints were scanned.
Yet another reason ... (Score:2)
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aspirin. but get this, they say that it's uncheatable because it ties the test result to your fingerprints.
"But officer, I just gave a handy job to someone high on coke, it's not my fault".
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This could be used to help people by detecting early signs of cancer or vascular related syndromes, but instead it's used to lock up people in the war on drugs, since that's where the money comes from. Assuming that 'drugs' in TFA refers to illegal substances, not specific medicines.
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Re:Drugs in money (Score:4, Interesting)
90% of US bills carry traces of cocaine:
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-08-14/health/cocaine.traces.money_1_cocaine-dollar-bills-paper-bills?_s=PM:HEALTH [cnn.com]
Now, let's suppose that you are a cashier, and it's a sweaty day.
After a long tiring day, you got arrested by the police.
Guess what ?
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I hope the tests probably don't test for cocaine itself but its metabolites. Thus raw coke on currency wouldn't trigger a false positive.
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That way, you only get wrongfully busted if you shake hands with a coke fiend....such as your stock broker.
Re:Drugs in money (Score:4, Informative)
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I seriously doubt a cashier could afford neither a lawyer or the repeated lab tests
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Maybe it's because you try to post as an AC?
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Your not helping you're point when you sound like you coked you're brain to hell a long time ago.
Error 1: You're.
Error 2: Your
Error 3: you're - again
It's important when you are trying to make the other person look like a moron to not look like a moron yourself. I could argue that the point you are trying to make could equally be applied to you.
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these devices can save a lot of money for drug testing in the judicial system like the rapid DNA comparison project will with immigration.
Of course, not convicting people on the mere suspicion of drug use would save even more money.
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