Summer is here again. The asphalt is melting, the patrol cars are turning into mobile ovens, and somewhere in the back seat, between the folders, vests and a bottle of lukewarm mineral water, the drug tests are quietly “baking”. Then these same tests are supposed to decide whether a person is a criminal. Classic, right! And if they “come true”, the state doesn't ask much. It takes away the license. It takes away the car. If the car isn't yours - congratulations, you pay its value. And then you start proving that you haven't used drugs. Not because you're guilty, but because someone didn't read the most basic instructions for storing the test.
The irony is deadly.
The manufacturer writes in black and white - the test cassettes should be stored between 4 and 30 degrees. Not 40. Not 50. Not as hot as a police car left in the sun for hours in July. But apparently physics doesn't apply in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Or chemistry. Or the instructions. They obviously rely on the old Bulgarian principle: "There's nothing wrong with him."
Then comes the big surprise of why the blood sample refutes the field test.
No, the problem is not necessarily in the technology. These tests are used all over the world. The problem is in the person holding them. If a sensitive chemical test is left to ferment in a patrol car for weeks, it ceases to be a reliable diagnostic tool and begins to look more like a lottery ticket.
And here the question arises: how many false positives are actually the result not of drug use, but of official negligence?
Nobody knows. It is more convenient not to know.
Because if it is admitted that improper storage compromises the tests, unpleasant questions will have to be asked. Who controls the way they are stored? Who is responsible? How many police officers are even trained to work properly with these devices? And most importantly - why should citizens pay the price for someone else's negligence?
The absurdity reaches the point that there are police officers who have almost no false positives. Why? Because they simply follow the instructions. They do not hold the cassettes at 50 degrees. They do not leave the device tilted. They don't work in the heat like at a village fair.
The curious thing is that when it was proposed some time ago that police officers be tested with similar field tests, the reaction from within was more than eloquent. Quite a few officers questioned their reliability and refused to accept that such a test could in itself be sufficient evidence. In other words - when the test is aimed at them, it suddenly turns out to be insufficiently reliable.
However, when it is aimed at the average driver, this same test becomes almost an absolute truth.
Such a double standard cannot create trust. If the tests are reliable enough for citizens, they must be reliable enough for Ministry of Interior employees. If they are not - then the state is obliged to guarantee that each sample is performed and stored under conditions that exclude human negligence. Because otherwise, the price is paid again by the driver, who first has to prove that he is innocent, and only months later receives proof that the test was wrong. This is not justice, but a presumption of guilt based on a questionably performed procedure.
So the solution exists. But it is clearly more difficult to organize a refresher course than to have people wait for months for blood tests, stand without licenses, without cars, and with the stigma of “drug addicts“, until the laboratory finally finds out that the test was wrong.
And the state? Of course, it doesn't make mistakes. The state never makes mistakes. If the test is falsely positive, the heat is to blame. If it's not the heat - the manufacturer is to blame. If it's not the manufacturer - the driver is to blame for deciding to get in the car at all.
But not the person who turned the patrol car into a warehouse for chemical experiments.
And until this attitude changes, every summer will produce not only record temperatures, but also a new crop of falsely accused drivers. Because the most dangerous drug on Bulgarian roads is not cannabis, amphetamine or cocaine.
The most dangerous drug remains irresponsibility. And unfortunately, there is still no test for it.