Cannabis Adaptation During and After Alcohol Ignition Interlock Device Installation: A Longitudinal Study.

Objective: A common intervention to prevent alcohol-impaired driving are alcohol ignition interlock devices (IIDs), which prevent drivers with a blood alcohol concentration greater than .025% from starting the car. These devices force drivers to adapt their drinking to accommodate the device.

Potential for cannabis adaptation among participants in a drunk driving intervention.

Background: Some alcohol interventions have been found to have the adverse outcome of increasing non-alcohol-related substance use. It is unknown, however, how changes in alcohol use over the course of alcohol ignition interlocks - a common DUI intervention - may impact other substance use.

Methods: Alcohol and cannabis use were measured using hair ethylglucuronide and Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol concentrations in blood, respectively.

Mandating Treatment Based on Interlock Performance: Evidence for Effectiveness.

Background: Vehicle alcohol ignition interlocks reduce alcohol-impaired driving recidivism while installed, but recidivism reduction does not continue after removal. It has been suggested that integrating alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatment with interlock programs might extend the effectiveness of interlocks in reducing recidivism beyond their removal. This study evaluated the first implementation of a Florida policy mandating AUD treatment for driving under the influence (DUI) offenders on interlocks.

Ethylglucuronide in hair is a top predictor of impaired driving recidivism, alcohol dependence, and a key marker of the highest BAC interlock tests.

Objectives: This study focuses on the predictive and comparative significance of ethyl glucuronide measured in head hair (hEtG) for estimating risks associated with alcohol-impaired driving offenders. Earlier work compared different alcohol biomarkers for estimating rates of failed blood alcohol concentration (BAC) tests logged during 8 months of interlock participation. These analyses evaluate the comparative performance of several alcohol markers including hEtG and other markers, past driver records, and psychometric assessment predictors for the detection of 4 criteria: new driving under the influence (DUI) recidivism, alcohol dependence, and interlock record variables including fail rates and maximal interlock BACs logged.

Levels and types of alcohol biomarkers in DUI and clinic samples for estimating workplace alcohol problems.

Widespread concern about illicit drugs as an aspect of workplace performance potentially diminishes attention on employee alcohol use. Alcohol is the dominant drug contributing to poor job performance; it also accounts for a third of the worldwide public health burden. Evidence from public roadways--a workplace for many--provides an example of work-related risk exposure and performance lapses.

Characterization of sialic acid index of plasma apolipoprotein J and phosphatidylethanol during alcohol detoxification--a pilot study.

Background: Apolipoprotein J (ApoJ) is a component of plasma high-density lipoproteins. Previous studies have shown progressive recovery of ApoJ sialic acid content with increased duration of alcohol abstinence. Therefore, the sialic acid index of plasma apolipoprotein J (SIJ) seems to be a promising alcohol biomarker.

Detection of phosphatidylethanol (PEth) in the blood of drivers in an alcohol ignition interlock program.

Objective: The rate of failed interlock blood alcohol content (BAC) tests is a strong predictor of recidivism post-interlock and a partial proxy for alcohol use. Alcohol biomarkers measured at the start of an interlock program are known to correlate well with rates of failed BAC tests over months of interlock use. This study evaluates 2 methods of measuring low blood levels of the biomarker phosphatidylethanol (PEth).

A note on the effectiveness of the house-arrest alternative for motivating DWI offenders to install ignition interlocks.

Introduction: The effectiveness of ignition interlocks at reducing drunk driving has been limited by the ability of driving-while-intoxicated (DWI) offenders to avoid court orders to install the devices.

Methods: In a pilot program in New Mexico, four Santa Fe County judges imposed home confinement (via electronic monitoring bracelets) on offenders who claimed to have no car or no intention to drive. Interlock installation rates for Santa Fe County were compared with all other counties in New Mexico over a 2-year program and 2-year post-program period.

Estimating driver risk using alcohol biomarkers, interlock blood alcohol concentration tests and psychometric assessments: initial descriptives.

Aim: To identify alcohol biomarker and psychometric measures that relate to drivers' blood alcohol concentration (BAC) patterns from ignition interlock devices (IIDs).

Design, Setting, Participants, Measurements: In Alberta, Canada, 534 drivers, convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI), installed IIDs and agreed to participate in a research study. IID BAC tests are an established proxy for predicting future DUI convictions.

Field and laboratory alcohol detection with 2 types of transdermal devices.

Background: Two types of transdermal electrochemical sensors that detect alcohol at the skin surface were evaluated. One, the AMS SCRAM device, is locked onto the ankle and is based on a fuel cell sensor; the other, a Giner WrisTAS device, worn on the wrist, is based on a proton exchange membrane. SCRAM is used by several court systems in the United States to monitor alcohol offenders, WrisTAS, a research prototype, is not commercially available.

Interlocks for first offenders: effective?

Objective: Vehicle interlocks have been shown to effectively reduce the recidivism of multiple driving-while-impaired (DWI) offenders; however, the evidence for their effectiveness with first offenders has been mixed. Two Canadian studies found that the installation of an interlock reduced first DWI recidivism, but U.S.

Mandating interlocks for fully revoked offenders: the New Mexico experience.

Objective: In New Mexico, between July 1999 and December 2002, the installation of an ignition interlock was an optional judicial sanction for second and third driving-while-impaired (DWI) offenders. This is a study of the recidivism of 437 offenders who were convicted and installed interlocks for an average of 322 days during that period.

Methods: The comparison group was a stratified random sample (N = 12,554) of the 20,949 offenders who were convicted during the same period but did not install interlocks.

Maternal depression and cognitive features of 9-year-old children prenatally-exposed to cocaine.

This study evaluated cocaine exposure and maternal characteristics as competing predictors of school-age cognitive, achievement, and language performance. One group of 47 exposed 9-year-old children were first studied in an earlier prenatal study. A non-exposed contrast group (n = 46) served as a reference.

A Swedish alcohol ignition interlock programme for drink-drivers: effects on hospital care utilization and sick leave.

Aims: This project evaluates health outcomes following an alcohol ignition interlock programme (AIIP) by assessing hospital care utilization and sick-leave register data relative to controls with revoked licences, but with no comparable opportunity to participate in an AIIP.

Setting: In Sweden, driving while impaired (DWI) offenders can now select voluntarily a 2-year AIIP in lieu of 12 months' licence revocation. The AIIP includes regular medical check-ups designed to alter alcohol use.

Barriers to interlock implementation.

This commentary reviews current and past vehicle interlock programs for impaired driving offenders with a focus on the challenges that courts and motor vehicle departments face in attempting to implement mandatory programs as required by current federal legislation. There are few offenders in interlock programs compared to the large number of impaired drivers arrested each year. This suggests that, to increase participation, courts will have to threaten more severe sanctions for those offenders who reject interlock programs.

The alcohol interlock: an underutilized resource for predicting and controlling drunk drivers.

This report summarizes evidence presented during the Third Annual Ignition Interlock Symposium at Vero Beach, Florida, 29 October 2002. The ignition interlock prevents a car from starting when blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is elevated. We review some of our prior work as well as introduce previously unpublished results to demonstrate the manner in which the data recorded by the alcohol ignition interlock device can serve as an advance predictor of future driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol risks.

Preference-weighted health status associated with substance use-disorders treatment.

Objective: Cost-effectiveness analyses using preference-weighted health status as the measure of effectiveness allow for the direct comparison of cost-effectiveness ratios for physical and mental health interventions. However, these analyses are not commonly used for substance use-disorders interventions. We conducted a methodological evaluation of the relationship between preference-weighted health status and 6-month substance use-disorders treatment outcomes.

Emerging technological approaches for controlling the hard core DUI offender in the U.S.

Drivers convicted of impaired driving are substantially overrepresented in alcohol-related fatal crashes. Because many such offenders continue to drive with suspended operators' licenses, monitoring their postconviction driving is a significant problem for the criminal justice system. Technology for tracking the location and drinking of such offenders is a rapidly developing field, which promises to provide methods for monitoring offenders on a 24/7 basis.

Behavioral measures of drinking: patterns from the Alcohol Interlock Record.

Aims: This report reviews breath test data captured by the alcohol ignition interlock, a device that prevents a car from starting when BAC (breath alcohol concentration) is elevated.

Design: The predictors were elevated BAC test rates from ignition interlock equipped cars of traffic offenders convicted of DUI (driving under the influence of alcohol) and who used interlocks for 6-18 months. Outcome data were future DUI convictions.

The alcohol interlock: an underutilized resource for predicting and controlling drunk drivers.

This report summarizes evidence presented during the Third Annual Ignition Interlock Symposium at Vero Beach, Florida, 29 October 2002. The ignition interlock prevents a car from starting when blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is elevated. We review some of our prior work as well as introduce previously unpublished results to demonstrate the manner in which the data recorded by the alcohol ignition interlock device can serve as an advance predictor of future driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol risks.

Barriers to interlock implementation.

This commentary reviews current and past vehicle interlock programs for impaired driving offenders with a focus on the challenges that courts and motor vehicle departments face in attempting to implement mandatory programs as required by current federal legislation. There are few offenders in interlock programs compared to the large number of impaired drivers arrested each year. This suggests that, to increase participation, courts will have to threaten more severe sanctions for those offenders who reject interlock programs.

Comparative and joint prediction of DUI recidivism from alcohol ignition interlock and driver records.

Objective: This work was conducted to find practical predictors that anticipate which driving under the influence (DUI) offenders will continue to drink and drive after a period of alcohol ignition interlock-controlled driving ends. The interlock prevents impaired driving by requiring a low blood alcohol concentration (BAC) breath sample before allowing an engine to start. Each breath test is recorded.

Evaluation of a program to motivate impaired driving offenders to install ignition interlocks.

Approximately 30,000 alcohol ignition interlocks, which are designed to prevent the operation of a vehicle if the driver has been drinking, are in use in the US and Canada. Ignition interlock programs are also being initiated in Sweden and Australia. The best-controlled studies that are currently available suggest that ignition interlocks are effective in reducing impaired driving recidivism while on the vehicle.