What drugs can PSNI test for at the roadside in Northern Ireland?

PSNI introduced saliva-based DrugWipes in Northern Ireland to detect cannabis and cocaine at the roadside. The test is an enforcement screening tool and operates alongside the existing Field Impairment Test process.

A positive roadside indication is not the end of the evidential process. Where officers believe a driver is unfit through drugs, the driver can be arrested and required to provide an evidential blood specimen at a police station.

Prescription and other drugs can still matter even if they are not one of the two drugs identified by the roadside wipe, because the NI offence can focus on whether a person is unfit to drive through drugs.

The NI enforcement process separates screening from evidential proof. A roadside breath test, DrugWipe or impairment check gives police information and may justify arrest or further testing, but the prosecution is built from the statutory evidential procedure, officer observations and any laboratory or approved-device result. That distinction matters when reading reports of someone having “failed a roadside test”. The practical result is that pSNI roadside DrugWipe testing currently targets cannabis and cocaine; officers can also use impairment testing where drug impairment is suspected. That prevents a rule written for Great Britain or the Republic of Ireland being applied automatically to a Northern Ireland case.