Highway checkpoints ask for blood and saliva samples  
Friday, September 21st, 2007

You're totally going to think we're making this up, and we're not. In Gilpin county, an hour west of Denver, Colorado, highway checkpoints were set up with a private organization asking for blood and saliva samples. Sheriffs allowed the Institute for Research and Evaluation (gee, that doesn't sound generic) to run five different checkpoints this weekend for "surveys" on drug and alcohol use among motorists. When passing through the checkpoint, drivers were asked to take a breathalyzer, submit a blood sample, and give a spit swab. Several hundred motorists were tested.

The thing is, the survey was optional, but many motorists didn't know it. Some who got stopped at the checkpoints later complained. The Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said that since sheriff's deputies were present, and the "surveyors" had on blue jumpsuit outfits, motorists were easily confused.

Since the motorists had to pass through the checkpoint, and the sheriff's deputies were right there with the surveyors, each motorist was automatically - without consent - subjected to a visual search, at minimum.

The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, who headed up the evaluation, list their "focus areas" on their website as being alcohol, tobacco, drugs, public health, safety, crime & justice, and education & youth. It's an independent, nonprofit organization that focuses on individual and social problems associated with drug and alcohol use. (And they do say "use," not "abuse." Big difference.) Something smells fishy, though, because motorists say they were offered $100 when they tried to refuse giving the "voluntary" sample.

For your info, if you ever come across one of these "checkpoints," or something similar, the best thing to do is ask pointblank if you are under arrest. If the answer is "no," you are free to go. I wish they would set up a checkpoint like that in Cleveland. I would give them a piece of my mind!

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