San Diego drivers may soon hear something new from police at traffic stops that could feel a bit like stepping into a sci‑fi movie. Instead of just checking your license and registration, officers now have a pocket‑sized gadget that can screen for drug use right there on the curb. It is a development that has piqued curiosity and sparked conversation across this coastal city.
According to multiple media outlets including CBS 8, the San Diego Police Department has started using a new handheld drug testing unit called the SoToxa Oral Fluid Mobile Test System. The tool detects active ingredients from substances like cannabis, methamphetamine, cocaine, opioids, amphetamines and benzodiazepines from a simple saliva swab. Within minutes the device can tell an officer whether any of these substances are present.
The Voluntary Swab
Imagine being pulled over on a clear California night and instead of the traditional walk‑a‑straight‑line or stand‑on‑one‑foot field sobriety test, you are handed a swab to swipe inside your mouth. That is now part of the experience in San Diego, but there is a twist that keeps things grounded in legal reality. The test is entirely voluntary. Drivers are free to decline it and there are no immediate penalties for refusing.
Police say the tool is not meant to be a punitive stick but rather a way to help keep impaired drivers off the roads and prevent devastating crashes. Officers trained as Drug Recognition Experts (also known as DREs) are being assigned these devices after completing specialized training to spot signs of impairment. These experts combine what they see on the roadside with the device’s rapid screening results to form a solid picture of a driver’s condition.
The SoToxa system rollout comes with some strategic backing. The department acquired five of these units with the help of a state grant that was funded in part by taxes on legal cannabis sales. That connection neatly highlights how changes in cannabis laws across states have forced police and lawmakers to rethink how drug‑impaired driving is spotted and handled.
A Positive Test is Just the Start
It was only a few years ago that law enforcement across the country struggled with spotting stoned drivers at all. Alcohol had breathalyzers that could give precise blood alcohol content numbers in seconds. Drugs, by contrast, lacked such a simple metric. In one well documented case, a San Diego driver openly admitted to recently consuming marijuana but aced all sobriety tests and walked free because there was no reliable roadside technology to detect impairment…