Section 101 Saliva Testing

• Library: DWI Experts and the Science of Chemical Tests 2014

The next big thing is saliva testing for alcohol and drugs. The number of research articles and activity in this discipline have skyrocketed. The DWI attorney should be prepared for this coming trend. Saliva testing, if perfected and held to be scientifically reliable, has many advantages over breath, urine, and blood testing.

For now, saliva testing for either alcohol levels or drug levels has not been proven reliable enough for forensic purposes in some studies. There are nonforensic uses of saliva testing procedures, but not for evidentiary tests.

When the level of THC (delta‑9‑tetrahudrocannabinol) has been tested, saliva versus blood serum, a large inter- and intra-individual...