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Published on Monday, August 12, 2002
in the Tampa Tribune
LAKELAND - An officer pulls over a weaving car.
The motorist doesn't smell of alcohol.
Is the erratic driving due to carelessness behind the wheel, or is the motorist impaired by a drug - prescription or otherwise?
Law enforcement officers from across the state are in Lakeland to learn how to tell the difference.
The Drug Evaluation Classification Program, a national course more than 6,000 law enforcement officers around the world have completed, is under way at the Lakeland Police Department through Friday.
The course is offered twice a year in Florida, and the first was held in April in Jacksonville, said course manager Mark Buckley, a field training officer with the Escambia County Sheriff's Office.
``Once you get through this class and the training and you are certified as a drug recognition expert, you are in a very elite field,'' Buckley said.
The 30 current students are from Lakeland Police Department, Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, Haines City Police Department, Florida Highway Patrol, Daytona Beach Police Department and Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, said Lakeland police Officer Hans Lehman, a certified drug recognition expert.
The program includes 10 days of classes on how to identify narcotics and prescription drugs and their effect on physical and psychological states, Lehman said. The officers are taught to recognize changes in breathing, perspiration, pupil size, blood pressure and pulse rate.
They also are taught to tell the difference between a person impaired by drugs and one who has diabetes or epilepsy.
Participants must perform 12 drug evaluations of motorists stopped by police. They must be done in front of an instructor, Lehman said.
The participants also must take a written exam of more than eight hours, Buckley said.
The program is important because nearly 50 percent of motorists arrested in Florida for driving under the influence of alcohol also are impaired by a prescription drug or narcotic, Buckley said.
Lehman, who became certified as a drug recognition expert in August 2001, is one of three with the Lakeland Police Department. There are 170 in Florida, Buckley said.
Lehman said when a patrol officer stops a motorist and suspects they are under the influence of a drug other than alcohol, a drug recognition expert often is called to the scene.
Lehman said he has performed 30 such roadside evaluations since becoming certified.
``People using prescription drugs and narcotics while driving are out there everywhere,'' Lehman said. ``Those drugs, combined with alcohol, are a big problem.
``A lot of people overmedicate themselves or don't read their medication labels and mix their medicine with alcohol. They don't realize how dangerous it is.''