Bill seeking to scrap drug testing for drivers advances

The proposal to scrap the smandatory drug testing for driver’s license applicants has advanced at the House of Representatives after getting the nod of the committee on dangerous drugs, Dangerous Drugs Board chairman Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said yesterday.

Sotto said the House committee chaired by Ilocos Norte Rep. Roque Ablan has initially approved his proposal for minor amendments in Section 36 of R.A. 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act).

During the hearing of the committee earlier this week, Sotto reiterated his arguments for the scrapping of the mandatory drug testing.

The DDB chief said the Department of Health even confirmed to him that drug testing could not really prove that a person is a drug dependent.

“I told our good lawmakers that an applicant may be found positive for drug use at that particular time but it does not necessary mean that he is a drug dependent. There must be a confirmatory test later on,” Sotto told The STAR.

“As we said, laws have to be reviewed after five years. After six years of mandatory drug testing, we now have the statistics from the Department of Health (DOH) showing that it is not effective at all — particularly on its use in securing driver’s licenses,” he added.

Sotto also cited records showing that only 0.19 percent of the three million applicants for driver’s license at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) who take the drug test had tested positive for drug use.

In 2005 when there were 3.4 million applicants, only 0.10 percent tested positive. In 2006, there were also 3.4 million driver’s license applicants but only 0.04 of those were found positive for drug use.

Last year, Sotto said over four million applied for driver’s license and only 0.05 tested positive, based on the data from drug testing operation management and information system of the DOH.