The French experience of establishing an oral fluid roadside drug test

In 2005, following on from the findings of the ROSITA and DrUID projects, the French government made the decision to investigate possible alternative matrices to urine for drug screening at the roadside. A special committee, which included French ministerial representatives, was established in 2006 and they decided to use a special procurement contract in the form of a “competitive dialogue”: this allowed manufacturers of screening devices to improve their product in accordance with the committee’s recommendations. From initial investigations carried out, oral fluid (OF) was found to be the best alternative matrix (non invasive sample taking, difficult to adulterate, existing prototypes), and so this was chosen for this work. The devices included in the work were screening tests based on immunochromatographic methods.