Criminal Justice

Colorado Becomes First State To Protect Defendants Against Faulty Roadside Drug Tests 

A 2024 study estimated that 30,000 people every year may be getting wrongly arrested due to unreliable roadside drug tests used by police.

C.J. Ciaramella | 4.3.2026 11:55 AM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google

Media Contact & Reprint Requests

(Illustration: Midjourney)

Colorado recently enacted a law protecting criminal defendants arrested due to roadside tests for drugs, becoming the first state in the country to recognize widespread instances of wrongful arrests due to police departments' use of unreliable drug field kits.

The Colorado House and Senate unanimously passed H.B. 26-1020 last month, and Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed it into law on March 26. Under the new statute, police can no longer make arrests solely for misdemeanor drug possession based on the results of colorimetric field drug tests and instead must issue suspects a summons to appear in court. The act also requires courts, before a defendant enters a plea in a case where a field test was used, to inform defendants of the known error rates for the tests and their right to request testing from a forensics laboratory.

The first-of-its-kind law is part of a growing bipartisan recognition of a problem that........

© Reason.com