A British company has developed a cheap hand-held drug testing device that in 5 minutes can enable parents to check, from a sample of saliva, whether their kids are using cannabis, cocaine or other illegal substances.

Universal Sensors Ltd, of Ickleton, Cambridgeshire, said their Vantix biosensor technology could also be used by the police to carry out roadside tests on drivers suspected of driving while under the influence of drugs.

The company’s Commercial Director, Kevin Auton, told the press that they realize the availability of such a device poses ”huge implications for society”, reports the UK’s Daily Mail.

Auton said he wasn’t sure if parents in the UK were ready for this technology, the “test raises privacy issues,” he added. Setting aside the controversial issues, he said the test would enable worried parents to check if their children are using drugs.

Auton explained that in the US, parents currently send samples of their children’s hair and saliva to labs for drugs testing. If there is a similar demand in the UK, it could be an interesting market, he added.

“It’s as simple to use as a pregnancy test,” he said, explaining that the company can produce 30 billion biosensors a year, so it would be cheap to buy. He added that the company was “very focused on getting the test out of the laboratory and onto other platforms”.

This means the device could be on the market in about two years time and selling at around £1.50 a test (about 2.30 US dollars). The device would be about the size of a small mobile phone, into which one inserts a cartridge containing a disposable 5mm wide chip and the saliva sample.

The chip has antibodies impregnated into its surface that react to certain metabolites of drugs, for instance the THC molecule in cannabis. When the chip detects such a chemical it produces a small electric current, which is amplified in the handheld device and turns on a warning light.

The advantages to the police force are more obvious and arguably less controversial, since they are already empowered to carry out checks if they suspect drivers of being under the influence.

Currently, police officers apprehending a driver suspected of driving while under the influence of drugs carry out field impairment tests, which examine pupil dilation, coordination and balance.

But the only way to obtain robust evidence is to send a blood sample off to the lab, something officers are often reluctant to do because it is so time consuming.

Also, as a spokesman for Universal Sensors told the Telegraph, once the police have found evidence of alcohol, they often don’t pursue the possibility that the driver could also be under the influence of drugs because of the extra effort and time involved. Yet drugs and alcohol are often consumed together, he said.

A test that uses a mouth swab and within five minutes can tell officers at the roadside whether drivers have drugs in their system, could change this scenario dramatically.

The spokesman said it would “make a zero tolerance approach to drug drivers possible for the first time”.

The company, in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University and Cambridge Design Partnership, is also developing a hand-held device to detect the hospital superbugs C. difficile and MRSA.

It is expected that the device, like the drug tester, will be able to detect the pathogens in 5 minutes, which is considerably faster than traditional lab-based methods that can take 2 to 3 days to get results.

Sources: Daily Mail, Telegraph, Universal Sensors.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD