Ketamine: the drug slipping through Spain's DGT drug tests

Professional drivers use ketamine to evade drug tests

What do a trucker, a delivery rider and a transport worker trying to avoid a positive test have in common? Increasingly, a vial of ketamine. The news, published in mid-April 2023, places the phenomenon in the Balearic Islands: local police and Guardia Civil traffic officers do not detect this substance in saliva tests at preventive checkpoints. And some professional drivers, it seems, have done their homework: if the test doesn't catch it, why risk it with cocaine or hierba?

The loophole in the saliva test

The rapid roadside test does not analyse any substance: it has a closed panel of drugs. Ketamine is not on that list. The laboratory test would detect it, but at a preventive checkpoint no one gets that far. The result is a perverse incentive: the driver who wants to consume and hit the road looks for the substance that doesn't show up on paper. Instead of deterring, the checkpoint rewards those who choose their drug better.

The benzodiazepine precedent

This is not the first time the list of targeted substances has fallen short. Something similar peine with benzodiazepines: the DGT announced it would not sanction those with a prescription, someone took it to court and the Constitutional Court ended up upholding the distinction. Result: positive tests for benzos stopped being sanctioned. The list of drugs to monitor does not respond to a purely toxicological criterion, but to an institutional tug-of-war. And drivers know it.

Is that drug fit for driving?

Here common sense slams on the brakes. Ketamine is a dissociative anaesthetic: it alters perception, coordination and consciousness. Those who take it end up knocked out, not in any condition to get behind the wheel. The strategy of evading the checkpoint may work on paper, but it multiplies the risk of never reaching any checkpoint. Those who try the shortcut may discover that the road has curves that cannot be negotiated with your eyes in another dimension.

Unreliable checks, very reliable revenue

Public discussion drifts towards something more uncomfortable: saliva tests are not infallible, and the margin of error combines with the officer's discretion when it comes to immobilising the vehicle or requesting a second test. Some argue that hierba has become the star target of checkpoints, despite not appearing in accident statistics when not accompanied by alcohol, while other substances go unpunished. The suspicion: the goal is the fine, not safety.

While the Administration chases the drug of the moment with technology from another era, the black market adapts faster than the BOE. The driver looking for a hit without legal risk already has their shortcut. The bad thing is that the shortcut is a road full of curves, and whoever takes it is wide-eyed.