Assessment of Drug Cases and Drug Screening

Methadone and Driving Aptitude

If you have come to the authorities' attention in connection with a drug offense, your licensing authority may require you to take a medical or medico-psychological test. Which test you are required to take will depend on the circumstances of your offense and is prescribed by law (§§ 11, 14 Driver's License Regulations).

A medical test will determine which drugs you have taken in the past or are currently consuming, and your level of consumption.

A medico-psychological test includes in addition to the medical test a psychological section to determine how your dealings with drugs will affect your behavior in traffic in the future.

To pass the medico-psychological test you will need to fulfill certain conditions. These conditions are not the same for everyone. They will depend on how long you have taken drugs, which drugs they were, and your level of consumption.

Before taking the test you should therefore take advice on how best to prepare for the MPT.

1. A truly self-critical assessment of your past drug consumption and consideration of how you plan to handle drugs in the future.
2. Objective proof that you have no longer taken drugs over a certain period of time. This proof can take the form of a urine test (drug screening) or a hair sample analysis. The length of time for which proof will be required depends on the extent of your past drug consumption.

Drug Screening

The findings of urine tests for drug screening can only be accepted by test centers if they comply with forensic medicine quality standards.

What does that mean for you?

1. You will be asked without prior notification and at short notice (48 hours at most for the results of drug screening to stand up in court) to produce a urine sample at a test center of your choice.
2. You will give a urine sample under supervision at the center.
3. The sample will be tested for the entire range of listed drugs.
4. If you have taken prescribed medications, please bring with you a doctor's certificate confirming that this is the case.
5. Please do not eat during the entire supervision period any food that contains poppy seeds. Eating cakes that contain poppy seeds can, for example, lead to a falsification of the test results. In this case your urine sample cannot, unfortunately, serve as proof that you are free from drugs.
6. Please do not consume too much liquid on the evening before the test or the day of the test. That could lead to a dilution effect and make the proof of drugs in your urine more difficult or impossible. In this case, too, your urine sample cannot serve as proof that you are free from drugs.
7. The urine sample you provide will be tested in a certificated laboratory. If initial test findings give rise to suspicion, secondary analysis is undertaken using a different method from the first. Only if proof is confirmed in this second test are forensic requirements considered to have been fulfilled.

Hair Sample Analysis

If in your case valuable time has elapsed ahead of the medico-psychological test without you having provided drug-screening proof that you are free from drugs, a hair sample may in some cases be taken for analysis.
This always presupposes head hair of a sufficient length.

What must you expect a hair test to involve?

1. From the back of your head a strand of hair about as thick as a pencil will be cut off as close as possible to your scalp. To make it less obvious the sample is taken from beneath your top hair. Assuming average hair growth of 1 cm per month, your past drug consumption can be tested over a period corresponding approximately to the length of the hair sample in centimeters.
2. If you have taken prescribed medications during this period, please produce a doctor's certificate to confirm that this is the case.
3. Your hair sample will be tested in a certificated laboratory for the entire range of listed drugs.
4. At the same time a sample of your urine will be tested for drug residues (see Drug Screening). This is necessary because a few millimeters of hair on your scalp will be missing, with the result that the hair test alone will not be enough to prove that you are currently free from drugs.

Our Driver Aptitude Test Centers will carry out these tests expertly for you. As we comply strictly with statutory regulations, you can be sure of being on the safe side with us.

Der Preis für eine Urinuntersuchung auf Drogenrückstände beträgt The price of a urine test for drug residues is € 103. We charge € 180 for a hair test.

Cannabis and Driving Aptitude

Driving under the influence of cannabis (hashish or marijuana) is a special case in the law governing driver's licenses. Consequences for your license will here depend on whether the cannabis consumption was a one-off or is an occasional or a regular habit.

If you have come to the authorities' attention in connection with cannabis, your local licensing authority may first require you to submit a doctor's report to establish whether you are still taking cannabis and if you are, how high your consumption is.

At the medical examination you will be asked about your past and present drug consumption, and past illnesses will be noted. You will be given a physical examination, and samples of blood and urine will be tested for drug residues (drug screening). A few weeks later, you will be screened again. Once all the results are in, the medical report will be drawn up.

If, in addition to your cannabis consumption, there are further doubts about your fitness to drive a motor vehicle, the licensing authority may require you to take a medico-psychological test. That will, for example, be the case if your blood was also found to contain alcohol or if other irregularities were ascertained (§ 14 Driver's License Regulations).

Methadone and Driving Aptitude

If you are taking part in a methadone program, you are best advised to seek one-to-one advice.

Regardless of your personal situation, certain conditions must be fulfilled for you to get your driver's license back:

• You should have taken an intensive and self-critical look at your past drug consumption and have drawn up specific ideas on a life without illegal drugs and without alcohol.
• You must prove by means of several drug screenings (see above) that you have taken no drugs of any kind, including hashish and psychoactive medications, for a period of at least 12 months. This must be certified by your doctor, who must also ensure that drug screening is up to the required quality standards.
• You will also be required not to drink alcohol. That can be proven by means of at least four lab tests (so-called liver function readings and MCVs) undertaken over a period of 12 months.
• Please bring with you confirmation in writing that you have attended psychosocial counseling classes, also over a period of 12 months.
• In the test you must show that your attention, concentration, reactions and ability to withstand stress are sufficient for you to drive a motor vehicle.