Identifying Types of Drug Intoxication: Laboratory Evaluation of a Subject-Examination Procedure

Bigelow, George E.; Bickel, Warren E.; Liebson, Ira A.; Nowowieski, Pat · 1985 · ROSA P / United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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Summary

This study evaluates the validity of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) procedure for identifying specific types of drug intoxication. Sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the research aimed to provide controlled experimental data on whether trained raters could accurately detect impairment and distinguish between drug classes in a laboratory setting. The experiment involved 80 healthy adult male volunteers who were randomly assigned to one of eight drug conditions or placebo under double-blind conditions. The administered substances included d-amphetamine (15 or 30 mg), diazepam (15 or 30 mg), secobarbital (300 mg), marijuana (1.3% or 2.8% THC), or placebo. Four experienced LAPD raters independently evaluated each subject for 20 minutes using a modified version of their standard field procedure. This evaluation included an interview, physiological examinations (e.g., pupil response, nystagmus), and psychomotor tests (e.g., balance, coordination). Raters were instructed to identify the drug class responsible for any observed intoxication or to determine if the subject was not intoxicated. The results demonstrated high specificity but variable sensitivity. When raters judged a subject to be intoxicated, they correctly identified the drug class 91.7% of the time. The overall false positive rate—instances where a rater identified intoxication when the subject had received no active drug or the wrong drug class—was 8.3%. Specifically, only 1.3% of ratings were false positives involving placebo subjects. Sensitivity, or the ability to detect intoxication when a drug was present, was dose-dependent. Detection rates ranged from 12.5% for low-dose amphetamine to 95% for secobarbital. Higher doses consistently resulted in higher detection rates, while many subjects receiving lower doses were judged as not intoxicated. The authors conclude that the DRE procedure is highly accurate in identifying the correct drug class when intoxication is detected, with a low rate of false positives. However, the procedure has limited sensitivity at lower drug doses, leading to missed detections. The study suggests that raters intentionally err on the side of missing potential intoxication rather than making false accusations. Limitations include the cooperative nature of laboratory subjects, the exclusion of polydrug use and alcohol, and the use of a shortened evaluation protocol. The findings support the potential utility of the procedure for law enforcement while highlighting its dependence on observable behavioral effects that correlate with drug dosage.

Key finding

Raters correctly identified the administered drug class in 91.7% of cases where intoxication was judged present, with a total false positive error rate of only 8.3%.

Methodology

lab_experiment

Sample size: 80

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• illicit drugs