A Diagnostic Screening Technology for Road-Side Drug Testing

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Drug-impaired driving represents a significant and increasing threat to the safety of Canadians. Indeed, according to the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse and Addiction, the percentage of drivers killed in vehicle accidents and testing positive for drugs is higher than that of alcohol. In part, this trend has been driven by the current opioid crisis in Canada. Thus, there is an urgent need for a convenient, instantaneous and accurate road-side evaluation technology for impaired driving. Current solution for roadside drug testing involves the acquisition of a $4,500 portable base station and the police will incur costs of approximately $35 per test for each user. However, this is still just a qualitative indicator. Quantitative detection of drugs requires expensive equipment, dedicated infrastructure and specialized laboratory personnel. To address this problem, Eye3Concepts Inc., an Ontario based company, is teaming up with McMaster University and wants to adapt its smartphone based reader technology called pd.id. pd.id was developed in an earlier collaborative effort with McMaster, funded via NSERC Engage and OCE-VIP 1 programs, to detect the presence of date rape drugs in liquids. In this project, pd.id will be adapted towards a technology that consists of a strip coated with reagents that bind with the drugs (THC and methamphetamine) in saliva and emit spectral wavelengths. These emitted spectral signatures will be recorded by a special sensor and an onboard microprocessor equipped with sophisticated signal processing algorithms will convert it to a digital signature, conduct further analysis, and compare it with a digital library of signatures to flag the presence of any PDs. The pd.id device will be electronic and rechargeable so it can be used constantly. It will be integrated with a smartphone containing the digital library or be able to communicate with the cloud containing the database, adding a further level of sophistication.