Swift roadside drug tests rolled out by Police Scotland

A project which sees quick-fire roadside test kits deployed by police in a bid to catch drug-drivers is being rolled out to two further parts of Scotland.

The kits – which test those under suspicion for the presence of cannabis or cocaine – are already used by specialist road traffic officers across the country.

A pilot involving local officers in Shetland was hailed a success, and has now been extended to North Aberdeenshire and East Ayrshire – two areas identified as having particularly high detection rates.

The devices – dubbed ‘drugalysers’ – involve taking a mouth swab, with a blue line appearing if the person has used the drugs.

Police said drug-driving offences in Scotland have risen by 60% in the past three years.

In 2024 there were 2,971 drug-driving offences identified through roadside testing, compared with 1,852 in 2022.

The results of the new roadside test come back within minutes.

If a driver has a positive result they will be arrested and taken to a police station for a blood test to confirm the result.

The rollout follows a six-month pilot project in Shetland which started in December last year.

Insp Steve Manson said drug-driving detections were catching up with drink-driving incidents and would “unfortunately” probably overtake them.

“We have a problem in this area [North Aberdeenshire] with high detection rates,” he told BBC Scotland News.

“They are involved in fatal collisions on occasions.”

“We want to do anything we can do to reduce the casualties and fatalities in our area. We hope this will help with that,” he said.

The North Aberdeenshire and East Ayrshire project will run until the end of March next year.

New drug-driving laws came into force in Scotland in 2019.

England and Wales had introduced drug-driving limits in 2015.