According to police rules, set up this way for legal reasons, drug tests performed in traffic by the police with Drager or AquilaScan devices are indicative. A driver who tests positive for a psychoactive substance detected by such a screening test is then taken for blood and urine tests. The results of the analyzes of the biological samples carried out by the INML are those that confirm or deny the result of the anti-drug test done in traffic. The prosecution or filing of the file by the prosecutor is done exclusively on the basis of the bulletin issued by the INML. Without it, your evidence, license and criminal record remain blocked.
Dorian Popa, influencer and singer, was stopped in traffic on October 26, and after the drug test he came out positive. Later, the result of the laboratory analyzes carried out at the INML indicated that he was positive for cannabis. The result was released in just one week, while drivers detected in August did not receive the toxicology report even today.
Dorian Popa talking about vices in Ilinca Vandica’s podcast
Drivers who have been waiting for the results of toxicological tests for 4 months
Marian* was tested on Sunday, August 13, “around noon”, with the drugtest device, the result being positive for cannabis and amphetamine. Barely awake from sleep, the man was going to pick up his girlfriend from the city. He was taken to the hospital to have blood drawn for tests and was suggested to go to the INML to pay them “to get out faster”.
“During that week, he called the INML and was actually there, and the answer from those there was that the analyzes are not paid for and he has to wait his turn,” a relative tells Libertatea.
Since then, he has repeatedly tried to find out when his tests will come out. He was told that in October only the ones from April will come out.
“We also spoke with a lawyer specialized in cases like this and he told us that until the results come out, no legal action can be taken. Now, my question is the following, how come Dorian Popa got his results in a few days and others are waiting for months?”, concluded the representative of Marian’s family*.
Another driver who wants to remain anonymous explains to the newspaper that he was tested 4 months ago with the DrugTest device and came out positive.
“I’ve been waiting ever since. And it seems to me that the stars have their INML, a parallel INML”, says the driver for Libertatea.
A greater interest for society?
INML doctors explain to Libertatea where the delays come from. It refers to the results of biological samples (blood and urine), taken after drivers test positive for drugs. Doctors confirm that in the case of stars, “files are prioritized”.
The reason? Whether it is an example of “not like that”, given in society, or whether such cases cover the real problems of the institute.
It is difficult for me to tell you “in the interest of the law”, probably a prosecutor would answer you, aiming exactly at the necessity of the example given to society in cases with media impact. It is obvious that the media pressure itself forces the authorities and Legal Medicine to react promptly, precisely to mask the underlying problem – the delays of months or a year. If the mediatized cases appear in the press as having been solved in 7 days, the actual reality becomes less meaningful and credible.
Expert medico-legal:
“The line is skipped for serious cases, accidents, crimes. But also for stars who are in the media,” explains another source from the Institute. The specialist says that any mediatized case “will show that the institute led by the director Curcă is going wrong. While ordinary people wait for months for a result.”
The doctors at INML Bucharest have been sounding the alarm for a long time
Since last year, doctors from the National Institute of Forensic Medicine Mina Minovici sent a memorandum to the Minister of Health Alexandru Rafila. In the document, the signatories accuse that their work has been hampered and that the medico-legal reports are delayed for years because of the management of the institution. Later, another document from INML, obtained by the newspaper, summarizes the problems faced by the institution.
Regarding the toxicological expertise on drugs, they showed that:
1. There is a large number of unworked expertises (some for over a year);
2. The necessary reagents are missing;
3. The necessary equipment is missing to cover the increased number of analyzes and the qualitative and then quantitative determination of certain drugs (ethnobotanical or other psychoactive substances such as NSP);
4. There is a lack of qualified personnel to cover the very large number of analyses;
5. Forensic toxicology laboratories are not ISO 17025 nor ISO 15189 accredited.
Doctors are also the ones who draw conclusions from the problems faced by the institution. Among other things, they claim that:
an “institutional chaos has been created in legal medicine, which will also affect justice with serious consequences for respecting the fundamental rights of individuals”; “a significant proportion of forensic doctors are put in a position to violate the legal norms in force, which makes them very vulnerable to any potential criminal who challenges these medico-legal acts and who may even accuse them of abuse of office or intellectual forgery and at the same time it affects them morally (because they have the permanent impression that they are breaking the law in their current professional activity, and often they have no solution left to comply with the law).” “the prescription of thousands of criminal cases and especially those of medical malpractice, drivers with alcohol or drugs.”
INML experts claim that such problems seriously affect the credibility of medico-legal documents, both in front of citizens and magistrates.
INML and the Police do not respond
Libertatea has asked, on several occasions, how many files are currently being processed by the INML, what is the average waiting time for results, and how many of these indicate false positive results. Although more than 30 days have passed since the newspaper’s requests, INML has not provided any response.
The problem of false positive tests remains one that has not yet been publicly clarified by the Romanian Police, even despite the insistence of the media.
When asked by the newspaper, the IGPR said it does not have statistical data, in the requested form, related to how many false positive results have been identified following tests with DrugTest machines and laboratory analyzes at the national level.
However, some IPJs have come out with public statements.
IPJ Brăila recently said that 50% of positive results failed at IML. In February, IPJ Maramureș asked the Romanian Police that the AquilaScan devices are no longer usedconsidering the very high rate of false positive results: out of 17 analyses, 8 results came out negative for the biological samples.
The only data provided by the Romanian Police are those that show how many findings of driving under the influence of psychoactive substances they have made in the last 3 years:
in 2021, 1,535 findings In 2022, 2,866 such findings were recorded; In the first 8 months of the current year – 2,187.
All these reach the laboratory analyzes so that they can be sent to court or classified.
Contacted repeatedly by the newspaper, INML director George Curcă did not provide an answer until the article appeared.
Too many files, too few results
The INML doctors explained to Libertatea that both they and the prosecutors are overwhelmed by medico-legal expertise and files with drivers “drugged behind the wheel”, in which no distinction is made between “being under the influence and having traces, residues of substance in the blood”. For the law and prosecutors, the quantity does not matter: anyone found with any trace of the substance in their blood is prosecuted.
At the same time, they draw the attention of doctors, drivers who consume ethnobotanicals get away without being caught, because neither drugtest machines nor Forensic Medicine laboratories can detect them.
“The problem has a jurisprudence component, but also a technical one,” say the doctors who spoke to the newspaper.
Sources from the institute also show that, “after the accident on May 2, in September, the Ministry of Health asked the Institute if we had problems in the laboratory. And only then did the Institute issue a note to the ministry substantiating the need for laboratory equipment purchases.”
Only last year, INML had 2,267 requests for toxicological analyzes for drivers, given that the institute serves 13 counties and Bucharest.
Have you noticed an error in an article from Libertatea? You can write to us at the email address [email protected]
2023-11-05 04:55:00
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