Significant reductions in testing costs
Reducing the number of offenders tested on arrest would save considerable sums on the testing process alone.
Cozart Biosciences won a contract from the Home Office in 2001 to supply the Cozart® RapiScan (a saliva-based system that can test for five different drugs and give results in minutes) for the purposes of the DIP scheme, at that point restricted to testing on charge. The contract was then worth £500,000.

In October 2005 the contract was extended through to April 2007, and expanded to allow for testing on arrest. ‘The Home Office anticipates that the number of tests performed, and therefore the number of Cozart cartridges used…will more than double – and perhaps even triple. In the six months up to November 2005, the DIP consumed 59,300 cartridges, so it is entirely possible that within a few years more than 300,000 a year will be being used.
 
The list price of each cartridge is approximately £8, while an electronic reader sells for £2,000, which suggests that this contract alone could deliver well over £2m a year of ongoing revenue’.

Money Week, 7 December 2006.
Immediately related elementsHow this works
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Drugs Policy in the UK »Drugs Policy in the UK
What drugs policy measures are open to the UK? »What drugs policy measures are open to the UK?
Emphasize health and social dimensions »Emphasize health and social dimensions
Make drug treatment more intelligent »Make drug treatment more intelligent
Strategic use of criminal justice system »Strategic use of criminal justice system
Reform the Drugs Intervention Programme »Reform the Drugs Intervention Programme
Abandon universal drug testing on arrest »Abandon universal drug testing on arrest
Significant reductions in testing costs
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