Txupa

1998/03/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Patenteak/Asmakizunak
• Medikuntza

From
now on, don't be surprised if the police offer you a candy with canes, a lollipop, at a time when it looks like an alcohol control asking you to be driving the car. Although you might think you are taking your hair, it is a new drug control system.

Blowing in the alcohol controls would have asked you more than once, reader, to know if you have drunk alcohol. Driving under the effects of drugs is not safer, of course, but so far you could not know whether the driver has taken drugs or not. The “lollipop” comes to fill that void.

The sweet has been produced in the British laboratory of Biosciences Cozart. Although it seems like a common sweet with canes, due to the substance that carries the candies, many will not find anything sweet. This substance, in fact, detects in the saliva remnants of certain drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, methadone, amphetamines, barbiturates, and substances in the heroin and morphine family. If the result is positive, the police will ask you to perform blood tests.

All tests have not yet been completed and until the end of the year you cannot use “lollipop” on British roads. According to the Ministry of Transport of the area, 26% of accidents occurred between January and October last year were caused by drivers who were under the influence of drugs.