Can police force someone to submit to a drug test?

[CdwJava]

That is the dance as it is done in Califonia. No one really cares about reasons for thinking wrongly. And if my test comes back clean, I doubt that anyone apologizes. I will just be glad when the judge tells me, "You're free to go."

A couple of points:

One, the concept of "probable cause" does not require absolute certainty. Nor does it even require proof beyond a reasonable doubt. If the officer's observations would give rise to a reasonable officer of similar training and experience that you were under the influence and unable to safely operate a motor vehicle, you could be arrested on suspicion of DUI and evidence subsequent to that arrest could be obtained lawfully.

Two, even if the test comes back negative, that does not mean that the officer lacked probable cause for the arrest or that you were NOT under the influence of something. The standard drug panel tested for by DOJ does not include many designer drugs and psych drugs. As a result it is possible to be high and still come back "clean."

If you were NOT under the influence of a controlled substance at the time of the arrest, then you should have every confidence in the world that the matter will be dismissed. Will the test come back positive? Did it come back positive?

That is (apparantly) how it is. The spirit of the bill of rights has died.

Hardly. Evidence in the blood metabolizes and disappears every moment. There has been a long-standing concept in the law about exigencies as exceptions to the warrant requirement to the 4th Amendment. Since the evidence is disappearing every minute, the courts have ruled that extracting blood (evidence) is appropriate if it is believed that the blood will contain evidence of the crime alleged (in the case of DUI, it is).

Now, if they arrested you for shoplifting and tested your blood without suspicion of your being under the influence, then that search would likely be unlawful.