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Alcohol, Drugs, and
Impaired Driving
 Alcohol, Drugs, and
Impaired Driving
Forensic Science and Law Enforcement Issues

Edited by
A. Wayne Jones
Jørg G. Mørland
Ray H. Liu
First edition published 2020
by CRC Press
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 In Fond Remembrance of Two Inspirational Leaders
in Traffic Safety and Police Science on Two Continents

Robert F. Borkenstein, AB, HonScD, HonLLD

(August 31, 1912–August 10, 2002)
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
United States of America

Ko-wang Mei, BA, MA, PhD

(March 16, 1918–April 1, 2016)
Central Police University
Taipei
Taiwan
Contents

Foreword xi
Preface xiii
Editors xvii
Contributors xix

Section I
HISTORY OF DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE

1 Driving Under the Influence of Psychoactive Substances:

A Historical Review 3
A. WAYNE JONES, JØRG G. MØRLAND, AND RAY H. LIU

Section II
OTHER HISTORICAL EVENTS OF INTEREST

2 Professor Robert F. Borkenstein: An Appreciation

of His Life and Work 61
DOUGLAS M. LUCAS

3 Epidemiology of Alcohol-Related Accidents

and the Grand Rapids Study 87
PATRICIA F. WALLER

4 The Analysis of Ethanol in Blood and Breath for Legal

Purposes: A Historical Review 105
A. WAYNE JONES

Section III
FORENSIC ISSUES INVOLVING ALCOHOL

5 Use of Punishable Limits of Blood- and Breath-Alcohol

Concentration in Traffic-Law Enforcement: Some
Advantages and Limitations 155
A. WAYNE JONES

vii
viii Contents

6 Common Legal Challenges, Responses, and Court

Decisions in Forensic Breath- and Blood-Alcohol Analysis 203
ROD G. GULLBERG

7 Quality Assurance in Forensic Breath-Alcohol Analysis 245

ROD G. GULLBERG

8 Pharmacokinetics of Ethanol: A Primer

for Forensic Practitioners 275
A. WAYNE JONES

9 Biomarkers for the Identification of Alcohol Use/Misuse 347

FEDERICA BORTOLOTTI AND FRANCO TAGLIARO

Section IV
USE OF NON-ALCOHOL DRUGS
AND IMPAIRED DRIVING

10 Driving Under the Influence of Non-alcohol Drugs:

Review of Earlier Studies 381
JØRG G. MØRLAND

11 Driving Under the Influence of Non-alcohol Drugs:

Experimental Studies 421
MAREN C. STRAND, HALLVARD GJERDE,
AND JØRG G. MØRLAND

12 Driving Under the Influence of Non-alcohol Drugs:

Epidemiological Studies 465
HALLVARD GJERDE, MAREN C. STRAND,
AND JØRG G. MØRLAND

13 International Trends in Alcohol and Drug Use

Among Motor Vehicle Drivers 509
ASBJØRG S. CHRISTOPHERSEN, JØRG G. MØRLAND,
KATHRYN STEWART, AND HALLVARD GJERDE
Contents ix

Section V
EPIDEMIOLOGY, ENFORCEMENT,
AND COUNTERMEASURES

14 Alcohol Limits and Public Safety 565

DENNIS V. CANFIELD, KURT M. DUBOWSKI, MACK COWAN,
AND PATRICK M. HARDING

15 Methodologies for Establishing the Relationship between

Alcohol/Drug Use and Driving Impairment: Differences
between Epidemiological, Experimental, and Real-Case
Studies 581
HALLVARD GJERDE, JOHANNES G. RAMAEKERS,
AND JØRG G. MØRLAND

16 Vehicle Safety Features Aimed at Preventing

Alcohol-Related Crashes 611
ROBERT B. VOAS

17 Approaches for Reducing Alcohol-Impaired Driving:

Evidence-Based Legislation, Law Enforcement Strategies,
Sanctions, and Alcohol-Control Policies 653
JAMES C. FELL

Index 691
Foreword

I am delighted to have been invited by three of my esteemed colleagues—the editors of

this book—to write a foreword. The book represents a comprehensive and timely review
of the multidisciplinary field of alcohol, drugs, and traffic safety—science, research, public
policy, and litigation. The editors have assembled an outstanding roster of contributors,
representing an international “who’s who” of academics, researchers, and thought leaders
in the field. The various chapters give a broad perspective of the past, present, and future of
the science of alcohol, drugs, and impaired driving.
The field has reached a level of maturity, reflected by the many international efforts
towards science-based laws and countermeasures, including widespread adoption of zero-
tolerance and concentration per se laws for both illicit and selected licit psychoactive drugs
in a driver’s blood; use of emerging technologies, such as roadside analysis of drugs in oral
fluid; and collection of more reliable information about the negative influence of drugs on
human performance and traffic safety. New problems requiring scientific solutions will,
however, always emerge, as exemplified by the current trend in the United States and else-
where towards legalization of marijuana use and the negative impact this might have on
public health and traffic safety.
My own involvement in the field of alcohol, drugs, and impaired driving began in
1990, as the newly appointed Washington State program director with responsibility for
blood-/breath-alcohol testing and postmortem toxicology. I found myself working along-
side Sergeant Rod Gullberg (author of two chapters in this book), who supervised the
Washington State Patrol breath-test program. Not knowing what to expect from a police
sergeant, but assuming that my task was to add scientific credentials to the program,
I quickly realized that Rod was an expert on quality assurance aspects of breath-alcohol
analysis and reliability of the results when these are used as evidence for prosecution of
traffic offenders. Through Rod I was introduced to many of the world’s leading experts,
including Professor Robert (Bob) Borkenstein (1912–2002), Professor Alan Wayne Jones,
and Professor Kurt M. Dubowski (1921–2017), all of whom were members of the faculty
of the legendary Borkenstein Course on Alcohol and Highway Safety, held biannually at
Indiana University (Bloomington campus).
In 1991 Dr. Jones nominated me as a member of the National Safety Council Committee
on Alcohol and Other Drugs (NSC-CAOD) as well as the International Council on Alcohol,
Drugs and Traffic Safety (ICADTS). By attending ICADTS meetings I met Professor Jørg
G. Mørland—then head of the Division of Forensic Toxicology, the Norwegian Institute
of Public Health, a leading international research group actively engaged in the emerging
field of drug impaired driving.
In the United States in the 1960s through the 1990s, Professor Borkenstein was a ­leading
voice and inspiration for research and policy in promoting traffic safety. Professor Borkenstein
was also a driving force in developing interest in alcohol, drugs, and traffic safety worldwide
as a long-serving president of ICADTS (1969–1983). During his tenure at Indiana University

xi
xii Foreword

(where the Borkenstein Alcohol Course continues to this day, recently celebrating its 60th
anniversary), Dr. Borkenstein influenced the lives of many of the major contributors to the
field of traffic safety. Among others, Dr. Doug Lucas, an internationally renowned Canadian
forensic scientist and director emeritus of the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto, spear-
headed introduction of the Borkenstein Breathalyzer® instrument in his home province and
throughout the country. Indeed, Breathalyzer results served as the primary evidence for
prosecuting drunken drivers throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia.
Dr. Ray Liu, who has been the editor-in-chief of the influential journal Forensic Science
Review (FSR) for over 30 years, was a graduate student of Borkenstein and did an intern-
ship under Dr. Lucas in Toronto. Later, Dr. Liu was appointed professor and head of the
Forensic Science Program at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, where he is currently
professor emeritus. Dr. Liu has been continuously working with his mentor Dr. Ko-wang
Mei (1918–2016), retired president of the Taiwanese Central Police University, and younger
colleagues in further development of forensic science in his native Taiwan.
The network of influential scientists and policy makers contributing chapters to this
book devoted to the subject of alcohol, drugs, and impaired driving will help to raise the
profile of this important public health and safety issue. These individuals have already
made significant contributions through their writings and research and have encouraged,
trained, and/or mentored many of today’s leaders in the field.
This book is a compilation of peer-reviewed articles previously published in FSR, most
of which have been updated to include recent developments and current status of the subject
­matter. In addition, several new articles are included from the July 2019 and January 2020
issues of the journal. The readers of this book owe a debt of gratitude to the authors of the
various chapters for their career-long contributions to the field of alcohol, drugs, and traffic
safety. Others can trace their introduction to the subject of impaired driving to attending vari-
ous ICADTS meetings and also as participants at the Borkenstein Alcohol and Drug Courses.
Most of the advances in road-traffic safety made in the United States, especially in the
1960s to 1980s, have a direct link to Dr. Borkenstein and the Center for Studies of Law
in Action, which he founded at Indiana University. I attended the Borkenstein Alcohol
Course as a student and novice researcher in 1990, and today I am proud to serve as its
executive director.
The many and sustained contributions made by Dr. Borkenstein have had a major
impact on the field of traffic safety, both in the United States and internationally, which is
reflected in the narrative of various chapters in this book. First and foremost, he invented
the Breathalyzer® instrument in 1954, which became the principal means of enforcing
drunk-driving laws throughout North America when traffic offenders were prosecuted.
In 1963–1964 Dr. Borkenstein led a team of researchers that produced the landmark
“Grand Rapids Study,” an epidemiological survey of crash risk in relation to a drivers’
blood- and breath-alcohol concentration. There is no doubt that Dr. Borkenstein’s efforts
helped to change public opinion about drinking alcohol before driving, and his legacy
continues to inspire new research initiatives in the on-going fight to improve traffic safety.

Barry K. Logan, PhD, F-ABFT

Executive Director, Center for Studies of Law in Action, Indiana University
Executive Director, Center for Forensic Science Research and Education
Chief Scientist, NMS Labs
ICADTS Widmark Award Laureate 2013
Preface

The contents of this book were derived from articles previously published in Forensic
Science Review (FSR), an international peer-reviewed journal established in 1989 to pub-
lish invited review articles covering all aspects of the forensic sciences. To commemorate
FSR’s over 30 years of continuous publication, the July 2019 issue was devoted to the subject
of “Alcohol, Drugs, and Impaired Driving.” Three of the articles from this special edition
of FSR are included in the book. Other chapters are updated versions of selected articles
previously published in FSR on the subject of alcohol, drugs, and driving. Some authors
made extensive revisions and opted to modify the titles of the articles published as book
chapters.
Forensic science is a multidisciplinary subject dealing with the application of a wide
range of scientific methods and techniques for the investigation of criminal offenses by
examination of physical and biological evidence. This interaction between science and law
makes the discipline of impaired driving and the use of chemical evidence for prosecution of
traffic offenders an important sub-domain of the forensic sciences. The main key words for
the chapters included in this book are:

Alcohol, Analysis, Biomarkers of Alcohol Abuse, Blood, Breath, Crash-Risk, Drugged

Driving, Drugs, Drunk-Driving, Epidemiology, Ethanol, Forensics, Impairment, Interlocks,
Law Enforcement, Psychoactive Substances, Substance Abuse, Toxicology, Traffic Safety.

**********
Sir Winston Churchill (1874–1965) is claimed to have said “Those who fail to learn from his-
tory are doomed to repeat it.” Others have added that in order to understand any scientific
discipline you need to know its history. With this sound advice, we are keen to acknowledge
the individuals who were instrumental in advancing knowledge about impaired driving
and improving the way that traffic offenders are prosecuted. One man in particular deserves
special mention and that is Professor Robert Frank Borkenstein (1912–2002), Department
of Criminal Justice, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN, US). Dr. Borkenstein served as
president of the International Council on Alcohol, Drugs, and Traffic Safety (ICADTS)
between 1969 and 1983. On the occasion of the 6th ICADTS meeting held in Toronto in
1974 Dr. Borkenstein became the third recipient of the prestigious Widmark award.
When Dr. Borkenstein died, obituaries appeared in several scientific journals as well as
national and international newspapers, exemplified by the New York Times, The Washington
Post, The Times of London, The Independent (UK), The Guardian (UK), The Economist, and
even Time Magazine. A summary of the life and work of Dr. Borkenstein, with focus on
the man and his impact was written by his friend and colleague from Toronto, Dr. Douglas
Lucas, whose tribute is included as Chapter 2 in this book.
Dr. Borkenstein made two fundamental contributions to the field of alcohol and traffic
safety. The first was the development of the Breathalyzer instrument in 1954, the availability

xiii
xiv Preface

of which simplified and strengthened the scientific evidence necessary for successful prosecu-
tion of drunken drivers. The Breathalyzer was approved for use by police forces in Australia,
Canada, and throughout the US. The wide acceptance and approval of the Breathalyzer
prompted police authorities to allocate more resources in the fight against drunken driving
and intensify their efforts to remove drunken drivers from the roads and highways.
The second major contribution made by Dr. Borkenstein was to the design and execu-
tion of a large-scale epidemiological study to determine the risk of involvement in a traffic
crash in relation to a driver’s blood-alcohol concentration (BAC). This became known as
the “Grand Rapids Study” named after the city in Michigan where a roadside survey of
drivers was conducted in 1963 and 1964. In this case-controlled study, the Breathalyzer
instrument was used to test drivers involved in crashes and compare results with a control
group of motorists not involved in crashes. The latter group was matched in various ways
in terms of demographics and other variables with the drivers involved in crashes.
**********
This first part of the book (Section I) consists of a single chapter (Chapter 1) that looks back
at historical developments in drunk and drugged driving legislation worldwide. Although
driving under the influence of alcohol is as old as motor-driven transportation dating to
the start of the twentieth century, the impairment caused by other drugs did not attract
much attention until the 1950s. Driving under the influence of non-alcohol drugs then
became a separate criminal offence and proof of impairment depended on the results
of clinical tests of impairment done by a physician or police surgeon. More recently, the
concept of establishing concentration per se limits in blood, as done with BAC, has been
extended to cover other psychoactive substances, both prescription medications and illicit
recreational drugs of abuse.
The second part of the book (Section II) comprises three chapters of historical inter-
est and important events, including a tribute to the life and work of Professor Borkenstein
(Chapter 2) and a chapter by Patricia Waller, PhD (Chapter 3) dealing with the Grand Rapids
Study. She emphasizes that driving with BAC above 0.04% is definitely associated with an
increased crash risk. The probability of a crash increases rapidly as BACs reach 0.08%, and
is extremely high at 0.15%. Single vehicle crashes were more common in drivers with higher
BAC as was the severity of their injuries and material damage was also more extensive.
Dr. Waller was an authority on the subject of injury prevention in connection with
traffic safety research. She was among a group of experts invited to attend a symposium
held in Taipei, Taiwan on December 1–2, 1999 to honor the many contributions made
by Dr. Borkenstein to traffic safety research. In honor of Dr. Waller (1932–2003) and her
contributions to the field of traffic safety research, we include an unabridged version of her
article in this book.
Chapter 4 presents a historical survey of the evolution of qualitative and quantitative
methods for the determination of ethanol in blood and breath for legal purposes.
The third part of the book (Section III) focuses primarily on driving impairment
caused by excessive drinking and the enforcement of BAC per se laws. The first chapter
Chapter 5 discusses the pros and cons of BAC as evidence for prosecuting traffic offenders
compared with methods of breath-alcohol analysis for evidential testing. The latter are
more convenient and non-invasive; they provide on-the-spot results and permit making
decisions about whether a driving permit should be revoked or a vehicle impounded.
Preface xv

The technology available for breath-alcohol analysis has improved considerably since
the days of the Breathalyzer, and the use of micro-processors allows automated sampling of
breath, detection of mouth alcohol, and calibration control of the accuracy of results, etc.
The performance of modern instruments for breath-alcohol analysis matches the accuracy
and precision of BAC determinations by gas-liquid chromatography. Nevertheless, results
of forensic breath-alcohol analysis are more often challenged in a legal context, probably
because of the weight given to this type of chemistry-based evidence in drunken-driving
litigation.
Chapter 6 reviews the merits of common defense arguments and court decisions
reached when scientific evidence in drunken driving cases is challenged. Because of the
importance attached to the results of blood- and breath-alcohol testing, the analytical
methods used require careful validation using rigorous quality assurance (QA) proce-
dures to ensure that the methodology is fit for its intended purpose. The background and
­statistical methods applied in QA of forensic breath-alcohol testing are included in this
section as Chapter 7.
Chapter 8 is a forensic primer on the subject of ethanol pharmacokinetics. Aspects
of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of alcohol often arise in a typical
drunken-driving prosecution. For example, this might entail comparing BAC with the
quantity of alcohol a person admits drinking before driving. Another common request is
to perform a back calculation of BAC from time of sampling blood to an earlier time, such
as the time of driving, which is often several hours earlier. The practice of back-calculating
a person’s BAC is a mandatory requirement in some jurisdictions, and this requires knowl-
edge of the many factors influencing the clinical pharmacokinetics of ethanol.
The final chapter (Chapter 9) in Section III deals with the increasing use of biomarkers
to detect heavy drinking and the use of this information in forensic casework. Use of bio-
markers is particularly important when dealing with repeat offenders because many suffer
from an alcohol-use disorder and might clinically be diagnosed as being alcohol depen-
dent. Before these individuals are sentenced, and when they apply for relicensing, objective
evidence of their current drinking habits is obviously important. This can be achieved by
the determination of various biomarkers, including liver enzymes (AST, ALT, and GGT),
and other markers, such as MCV, CDT, EtG, and Peth.
The fourth part of the book (Section IV) shifts the focus toward the role played by
drugs other than alcohol in causing driver impairment. Although drunken driving is the
more serious problem for road-traffic safety, the prevalence of drivers impaired by non-
alcohol drugs is rapidly increasing. Inappropriate use of prescription medications (such
as sleep aids, anti-anxiety agents, and pain medications), as well as other drugs active in
the central nervous system are hazardous for traffic safety. Added to this is the problem of
taking psychoactive recreational drugs for pleasure and excitement, such as central stimu-
lants (amphetamines and cocaine) and cannabis/marijuana. The latter represents a serious
challenge for traffic safety because of the emphasis on legalizing/decriminalizing its use
in some jurisdictions. Chapter 10 gives a broad overview of driving under the influence
of ­non-alcohol drugs and the state of knowledge until the end of the twentieth century.
Chapters 11 and 12 update this knowledge to the twenty-first century and delve deeper
into experimental and epidemiological studies of impairment caused by certain classes
of psychoactive drugs, which are over-represented in crash statistics. The quantitative
relationships and the strength of the evidence relating impairment of body functions and
the concentrations of active substances in blood are reviewed in depth. The final chapter
xvi Preface

(Chapter 13) in Section IV looks at international trends in alcohol and drug use among
motor vehicle drivers, the prevalence of road traffic crashes (RTC) involving impaired
drivers, and the importance of study design, law enforcement strategies, and the toxico-
logical methods used to confirm intake of impairing substances.
The final part of the book (Section V) is concerned with the epidemiology of impaired
driving and the choice of enforcement strategies to deter traffic offenders and reduce their
involvement in road traffic crashes. Revocation of driving permits is not always effective,
because many drivers—especially hardcore offenders—continue to drive even without a
valid license. Chapter 14 attempts to place alcohol-impaired driving in a public health per-
spective and underscores the importance of enforcing concentration per se alcohol limits
for driving and paying more attention to improving the detection and prosecution of traf-
fic offenders.
The relationship between alcohol/drug use and impairment can be assessed in vari-
ous ways and with different types of methodological approaches. This is the subject of
Chapter 15, which explores the relevance of controlled laboratory studies of drug influ-
ence, the use of computer software and driving simulators, as well as on-the-road driving
tests under real-world conditions. These different methodologies have certain advan-
tages and limitations. For safety and ethical reasons, human dosing studies are limited to
therapeutic amounts of the medication, often a single acute dose, which is unlike many
apprehended drivers who overdose and also combine multiple psychoactive substances.
The authors present unequivocal evidence of the impairment effects of various classes of
drugs on skills necessary for safe driving, and they reiterate the importance of toxicologi-
cal analysis of blood samples from all victims of road traffic crashes, thus furnishing real-
world case studies.
The final two chapters in Section V take a closer look at the effectiveness of various sanc-
tions to deter and diminish driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. Foremost
among these, in the case of alcohol, is the fitting of ignition interlock devices to vehicles
owned by a convicted drunken driver (Chapter 16). This necessitates that a person must pass
a breath-alcohol test before being able to start and drive their vehicle. This approach has
proven particularly effective in reducing recidivism among hard-core traffic delinquents.
The final chapter (Chapter 17) looks at various approaches for reducing impaired driving,
such as evidence-based legislation, more effective law enforcement deterrence strategies, and
options for different ways of sentencing, including drug or DUI courts and mandatory treat-
ment and rehabilitation programs in lieu of jail for a DUI or DUID conviction.

A. Wayne Jones, Jørg G. Mørland, and Ray H. Liu

Editors

Professor A. Wayne Jones earned a BSc degree (1969) and a PhD degree (1974) in chemis-
try from the University of Wales (Cardiff, UK). In 2013 Dr. Jones retired from his appoint-
ment as senior scientist at Sweden’s National Laboratory of Forensic Medicine, Division of
Forensic Genetics and Forensic Toxicology (Linköping, Sweden). He currently serves as a
guest professor at the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Division of Drug Research at
University of Linköping, Sweden.
Prof. Jones’s doctoral thesis was entitled “Equilibrium Partition Studies of Alcohol in
Biological Fluids” which dealt with analytical and physiological aspects of ethanol analysis
in blood and exhaled breath. Since 1973, his research activities have involved studies of the
pharmacology and toxicology of ethanol and other drugs of abuse. He has been particu-
larly interested in the determination of ethanol and drugs in biological specimens from
living and deceased persons, as well as the disposition and fate of psychoactive substances
in the body and their detrimental effects on performance and behavior. Dr. Jones received
a senior doctorate degree (DSc) from the University of Wales in 1993 for his body of pub-
lished work entitled: “Methods of Analysis, Distribution and Metabolism in the Body and
Biological Effects of Alcohol and Narcotics.”
Since his first publication in 1974, Dr. Jones’s name now appears as author or co-author
on more than 400 journal articles, reviews, and book chapters, most of which were pub-
lished in peer-reviewed journals. His publications are widely cited in scientific articles, and
also in court cases involving driving under the influence of alcohol and/or other drugs.
In recognition of his career-long contributions to the field of forensic science and toxi-
cology, Dr. Jones has received numerous awards including the Widmark Award from the
International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (ICADTS) in 1997.

Professor Jørg G. Mørland earned an MD degree from the University of Oslo in 1967
and a PhD degree in pharmacology from the same university in 1975. Dr. Mørland is
now a senior scientist at the Division of Health Data and Digitalization of the Norwegian
Institute of Public Health and a professor emeritus at the University of Oslo.
Throughout his professional career, Dr. Mørland has served as professor of pharmacol-
ogy at the University of Oslo and the University of Tromsø (Tromsø, Norway), director of
the former Norwegian National Institute of Forensic Toxicology, and was director of the
Division of Forensic Medicine and Drug Abuse Research of the Norwegian Institute of
Public Health (Oslo, Norway) until 2012.
He is a medical specialist in clinical pharmacology. His main research field is biomedi-
cal effects of alcohol and drugs of abuse, their metabolites and metabolism. He has been
the principal supervisor for approximately 30 PhD students, as well as the scientific project
manager for several projects supported by the Research Council of Norway.
Dr. Mørland has published more than 400 articles in peer-reviewed journals on phar-
macology, toxicology, forensic medicine, neuroscience, alcoholism, epidemiology, drug
analysis, and road-traffic safety. He has also written more than 8,000 expert-witness

xvii
xviii Editors

statements for the police and courts in Norway and has appeared hundreds of times as an
expert witness in courts at all levels in Norway as well as in some Swedish courts.
He was the recipient of a Widmark Award from the International Council on Alcohol,
Drugs and Traffic Safety (ICADTS) in 2004.

Professor Ray H. Liu began his career with a degree in law (1965) from the police acad-
emy (now Central Police University) in Taiwan before earning a PhD (1976) in chemis-
try from Southern Illinois University (Carbondale, IL). Before his doctoral thesis, Dr. Liu
studied forensic science under the guidance of Professor Robert F. Borkenstein at Indiana
University (Bloomington, IN) and received internship training at the Centre of Forensic
Sciences in Toronto, Canada, headed by Dr. Doug Lucas.
Dr. Liu has held positions at the University of Illinois at Chicago (Chicago, IL), the
US Environmental Protection Agency’s Central Regional Laboratory (Chicago, IL), and
the US Department of Agriculture’s Eastern Regional Research Center (Philadelphia, PA)
and Southern Regional Research Center (New Orleans, LA). He was a faculty member
at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) for 20 years (serving as the director
of the University’s graduate program in forensic science for the last 10 years) before his
retirement in 2004; he was granted professor emeritus status in 2005. Following his retire-
ment from UAB, Dr. Liu taught at Fooyin University (Kaohsiung, Taiwan) for 8 years
(2004–2012).
Dr. Liu’s scientific works have been mainly in the field of analytical and toxicologi-
cal chemistry of drugs of abuse (criminalistics and forensic toxicology), with a significant
number of publications in each of the following areas: enantiomeric analysis, quantitative
determination using isotopic analogs as internal standards, correlation of immunoassay
and GC-MS test results, specimen source differentiation, and analytical method develop-
ment. He has authored/edited (or coauthored/coedited) approximately 150 journal articles,
book chapters, and 5 books. Dr. Liu has long served as editor-in-chief of Forensic Science
Review and is a member of the editorial boards for several international journals.
Contributors

Federica Bortolotti Jørg G. Mørland

Department of Diagnostics and Public Health Division of Health and Digitalization
University of Verona Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Verona, Italy and
Institute of Clinical Medicine
Dennis V. Canfield University of Oslo
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute Oslo, Norway
Federal Aviation Administration
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Ray H. Liu
Department of Criminal Justice
Asbjørg S. Christophersen University of Alabama at Birmingham
Department of International Public Health Birmingham, Alabama
Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Oslo, Norway Douglas M. Lucas
Centre of Forensic Sciences
Mack Cowan Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Texas Department of Public Safety
Austin, Texas Johannes G. Ramaekers
Department of Neuropsychology and
Kurt M. Dubowski (1921–2017) Psychopharmacology
Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center University of Maastricht
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Maastricht, the Netherlands

James C. Fell Kathryn Stewart

Department of Economics, Justice, and Society Prevention Research Center
National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the Safety and Policy Analysis International
University of Chicago Oakland, California
Bethesda, Maryland
Maren C. Strand
Hallvard Gjerde Department of Forensic Sciences
Department of Forensic Sciences Oslo University Hospital
Oslo University Hospital Oslo, Norway
Oslo, Norway
Franco Tagliaro
Rod G. Gullberg Department of Diagnostics and Public Health
Clearview Statistical Consulting University of Verona
Snohomish, Washington Verona, Italy

Patrick M. Harding Robert B. Voas

Toxicology Section (Retired) Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation
Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene Beltsville, Maryland
Madison, Wisconsin
Patricia F. Waller (1932–2003)
A. Wayne Jones Department of Psychology
Department of Clinical Pharmacology University of Michigan
University of Linköping Ann Arbor, Michigan
Linköping, Sweden

xix
History of Driving
Under the Influence I
Driving Under the Influence
of Psychoactive Substances
A Historical Review* 1
A. WAYNE JONES, JØRG G. MØRLAND,
AND RAY H. LIU

Contents
1.1 Introduction 4
1.1.1 Early Development 4
1.1.2 First Conviction for Impaired Driving 5
1.2 Alcohol, Drugs, and Crash Risk 6
1.2.1 Role of Alcohol 7
1.2.2 Role of Other Drugs 10
1.3 Impaired Driving Legislation 12
1.3.1 Alcohol 12
1.3.1.1 Clinical Tests of Drunkenness 14
1.3.1.2 Alcohol Concentration per se Limits 15
1.3.2 Non-alcohol Drugs 16
1.3.2.1 Clinical Tests and Impairment Laws 19
1.3.2.2 Drug Recognition Experts 19
1.3.2.3 Zero-Tolerance Laws 20
1.3.2.4 Drug Concentration per se Limits 21
1.3.2.5 Graded or Enhanced Penalties 24
1.4 Synthetic Drugs and Pharmaceuticals 26
1.4.1 Development of Synthetic Drugs 26
1.4.1.1 A Plethora of Pharmaceuticals 26
1.4.1.2 Scheduled Drugs and Controlled Substances 27
1.4.1.3 Public Awareness and Information 27
1.4.2 Upsurge of Recreational Drugs 29
1.4.2.1 Historical Background 29
1.4.2.2 Abuse of Illicit Drugs 30
1.5 Analytical Methods 31
1.5.1 Roadside Screening Tests 32
1.5.1.1 Standardized Field Sobriety Tests 32
1.5.1.2 Breath Tests for Non-alcohol Drugs 34
1.5.1.3 Oral Fluid Tests 34
1.5.2 Quantitative Analysis of Ethanol and Other Drugs 35
1.5.3 Interpretation of Analytical Results 37

* This chapter is an updated version of a review article previously published in Forensic Science Review:
Jones AW, Mørland JG, Liu RH: Driving under the influence of psychoactive substances—A historical
review; Forensic Sci Rev 31:103; 2019.

3
4 Alcohol, Drugs, and Impaired Driving

1.6 Common Defense Arguments in DUID Cases 38

1.7 Age, Gender, and Drugs Detected 41
1.8 Discussion and Conclusions 43
1.8.1 Discussion 43
1.8.2 Conclusions 45
References 46

1.1 Introduction

Compared with drunken driving, which is as old as motor-driven transportation, driving

under the influence of psychoactive substances other than alcohol is a relatively new prob-
lem for road-traffic safety. According to a 2018 report from the World Health Organization
(WHO), approximately 1.3–1.4 million people die each year as a result of road-traffic
accidents (WHO 2018). Among these fatalities many drivers are impaired by excessive
drinking or taking other psychoactive substances before driving, thereby increasing the
risk of involvement in a traffic crash. Drug-impaired driving represents a global problem
for public health and longevity and more effective ways of dealing with traffic delinquents
and high-risk offenders should be made a top priority for government action.

1.1.1 Early Development

When the first “motor-wagons” appeared on the roads, driving under the influence of alco-
hol was not considered a criminal offense. The UK Licensing Act of 1872 had made it an
offense to be “drunk while in charge on any highway or other public place of any carriage,
horse, cattle or steam engine” (UK Government 1872). It was not until the UK Criminal
Justice Act of 1925 that this requirement was extended to cover “any mechanically pro-
pelled vehicle.” In 1930 it became illegal to drive, attempt to drive, or be in charge of a vehi-
cle on a road or other public place while “under the influence of drink or drugs to such an
extent as to be incapable of having proper control of the vehicle” (UK Government 1930).
The proof necessary to convict a person for drunken driving was elusive, because of the
difficulty in convincing a judge or jury that a person was drunk to the extent of not being
able to drive safely. The crux of the problem was that opinions among ordinary people dif-
fered as to what constituted being drunk and incapable (British Medical Association 1965).
Meanwhile, a person might be charged with an offense based on their own admission of
excessive drinking before driving and on eyewitness or police reports about the traffic inci-
dent (Lerner 2011). The person’s general appearance and behavior and the smell of alcohol
on the breath were taken as indications that alcohol was the culprit (Moskowitz et al. 1999).
The prosecution of impaired drivers was strengthened in the 1930s when medical evi-
dence was presented to the court as proof that a driver was impaired by alcohol or drugs.
A physician or police surgeon was charged with examining suspects, asking them about
their alcohol consumption and also administering simple clinical tests of drunkenness to
arrive at a diagnosis (Alha 1963). An important reason for the medical examination was to
distinguish impairment caused by alcohol or other drugs from a medical condition mim-
icking the signs and symptoms of drunkenness (British Medical Association 1965).
The evaluation of clinical signs and symptoms of drunkenness is rather subjective, and
different physicians could reach different conclusions when people with the same blood-
alcohol concentration (BAC) were examined. This was well illustrated in a study from
Driving Under the Influence of Psychoactive Substances 5

Sweden in 1940 (Liljestrand 1940). Seven physicians each examined 100 apprehended driv-
ers and reached a conclusion about alcohol impairment and their fitness to drive. Large dis-
crepancies were noted in percentage of individuals judged as under the influence of alcohol
within the same range of BAC. For example, in the 0.10–0.15 g% range, one of the doctors
considered that 43% of suspects were “under the influence” whereas another concluded that
91% were similarly impaired at this same BAC.
The protocol used to examine traffic offenders gradually became more standardized
for its intended purpose and the conclusions were less dependent on the experience and
training of the examining physicians (Penttila and Tenhu 1976). It was also widely recog-
nized that people reacted differently to the effects of alcohol and some impairment tests
were more sensitive than others in detecting alcohol influence (British Medical Association
1927). Moreover, some people were able to “pull themselves together” in a critical situation,
such as when threatened with criminal prosecution.
The results from clinical tests of drunkenness were, to some extent, influenced by
the suspect’s age, gender, drinking pattern (type of beverage consumed), time after end
of drinking when the examination was made, and the individual’s previous experience
with alcohol consumption (habituation), etc. Other human factors that warranted con-
sideration when traffic crashes were investigated included the driver’s personality, mental
health status, passengers and other distractions (such as children in the vehicle), aspects
of the vehicle itself (brakes, steering, speed), the motoring environment, day or night-time
driving, weather conditions, and so on (Petridou and Moustaki 2000).

1.1.2 First Conviction for Impaired Driving

According to a British newspaper report, the first conviction for a drunk-driving offense
occurred in London, England, in 1897 (Editorial 1897). The suspect, Mr. George Smith
(25 years old), drove his electric motor cab erratically, swerving from one side of the road
to the other, crossed a footway (side-walk) and crashed into a building on New Bond Street.
When helped from the wreckage by passersby, Mr. Smith appeared to be drunk, and when
questioned by police he admitted drinking three glasses of beer before driving. He was later
charged with being “unfit to drive through drink” and pleaded guilty, but said he was very
sorry. He was fined 20 shillings or 1 GBP (roughly 150 GBP in today’s money). The presiding
magistrate warned him to be more careful in the future and remarked that “the police have a
very happy knack of stopping a runaway horse, but to stop a motor is a very different thing.”
The prosecution evidence in this case rested on Mr. Smith’s own admission of drink-
ing beer before driving, the fact he crashed his cab, and the testimony of the police and
eyewitnesses to the crash. Accordingly, there was no medical or scientific evidence that
Mr. Smith was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash.
The first prosecution for driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) has been more
difficult to trace. Psychoactive drugs other than alcohol were not widely available at the start
of the twentieth century; however, opiates and cocaine were recognized as drugs of abuse in
some quarters and were used for recreational purposes (Musto 1991). Furthermore, until the
1960s the analytical methods needed to identify drugs other than alcohol in blood and urine
were rudimentary and gave only qualitative results for a few selected substances, such as bar-
biturates and chloral hydrate (Sharma 1976). Barbiturate-type drugs were widely prescribed
during the first half of the twentieth century to treat insomnia; therefore, it is reasonable to
assume that inappropriate use of this medication represented a hazard for traffic safety.
6 Alcohol, Drugs, and Impaired Driving

If a driver showed signs and symptoms of impairment but there was no smell of alco-
hol on the breath, this raised a warning flag that other drugs might be involved. One of the
tasks of the physician was to rule out a medical condition “simulating” drunkenness, such
as mental instability, a nervous disorder, or metabolic disturbance, such as low blood sugar
(diabetes) or epilepsy, all of which warranted consideration.

1.2 Alcohol, Drugs, and Crash Risk

At the turn of the twentieth century, ownership of motor-driven vehicles by ordinary

people was uncommon. This soon changed and by the 1920–1930s automobiles were the
main form of transportation in some nations, especially in the United States (Lerner 2011).
However, impaired driving was not a major issue of concern; regulations, such as having a
valid driving permit, basic rules of the road (e.g., a speed limit), and a highway code, were
considered as elements requiring more attention from policymakers.
The prevalence of alcohol and drug use by drivers is usually determined through a
close collaboration with the police authorities and in some nations they are allowed to
make random checks of driver sobriety by requesting samples of blood, breath, or oral flu-
ids for analysis of alcohol and other drugs (Walsh et al. 2008). A review article from 1993
found large differences between countries in the prevalence of alcohol-positive drivers in
the traffic flow and among those fatally injured in crashes (Ross 1993).
A 12-month study (2016–2017) of alcohol and drug use by drivers in Norway
(Furuhaugen et al. 2018), involving checks made on drivers of all types of vehicle, found:

• Only 0.2% were alcohol positive (BAC > 0.02 g%);

• Medicinal drugs were identified in 3% of drivers and the most prevalent of these
was zopiclone, a prescription sleep-aid medication; and
• Illicit drugs were positive in 1.7% of samples, mostly cannabis as verified by find-
ing THC in blood or saliva.

The low prevalence of alcohol-positive cases (0.2%) above the legal limit of 0.02 g% con-
firmed the findings from an earlier study done in 2008–2009 (Gjerde et al. 2008).
Detection rates of alcohol-positive drivers depended to some extent on day of week and
time of day when traffic stops were made. The highest prevalence was found in drivers tested
on weekend nights. Other roadside surveys, including mandatory testing of oral fluid speci-
mens, have identified the prevalence of drivers using drugs other than alcohol (Alcaniz et al.
2018). Depending on the country concerned, between 5% and 10% of drivers test positive for
one or more psychoactive substance other than alcohol, in part dependent on weekday and
the time of day (Alcaniz et al. 2018; Gjerde et al. 2013, 2008). Worldwide trends in alcohol
and drug use by drivers were the subject of a 2016 review article, which drew attention to the
need for better standardization of the material collected in different countries and the need
for more research on the role of alcohol and drugs in crashes utilizing a comprehensive pro-
gram of toxicological analysis of biological samples (Christophersen et al. 2016).
The prevalence of alcohol use by drivers in the United States decreased from 1973 to
2014, whereas use of other drugs, both on prescription and illicit substances, increased over
the same time period (Berning et al. 2015). The results from a 2014 national roadside sur-
vey, done on weekdays during daytime, found 1.1% of drivers tested positive for alcohol use
Driving Under the Influence of Psychoactive Substances 7

(BAC > 0.005 g%) and 0.4% were above the 0.08 g% statutory limit. The alcohol-­positive
rates for a similar roadside survey done on weekend nights were appreciably higher: 8.3%
positives and 1.5% above the statutory BAC limit (Berning et al. 2015).
In the same US study, the drivers testing positive for non-alcohol drugs (both licit and
illicit) rose to 22.4% in midweek daytime tests and 22.5% positives on weekend nights,
­suggesting no statistical difference (Berning et al. 2015). Of the drug-positive cases, roughly
12%–15% involved illegal drugs and 7%–10% of drivers had used prescribed medicines.
The dominant illicit drug was cannabis with a prevalence of 15.2%, followed by prescrip-
tion drugs in 7.3% of the drivers tested on weekend nights. These positive results were
ratified by toxicological analysis of drugs in blood and/or saliva specimens, although the
concentrations of pharmacologically active substances present were not reported.
Further convincing evidence that driving under the influence of alcohol and/or other
drugs is a danger for traffic safety comes from postmortem toxicology results in drivers
killed in crashes. However, making such comparisons between countries is problematic
because different procedures and practices are adopted in selecting crash victims for foren-
sic autopsy and conducting toxicological analysis (Berning and Smither 2014). For example,
in Norway 58% of the drivers killed in crashes included information from drug analysis
(Gjerde et al. 2011), while the corresponding rate was >95% in Sweden (Jones et al. 2009).
Reliable information about drug use by drivers killed in crashes in the United States is
difficult to obtain because there is no consistent policy or procedures about who is actually
tested. Much seems to depend on age and/or gender of the deceased and the jurisdiction
where the crash occurred. Some medical examiners are content with toxicological testing for
ethanol, whereas others require a broad drug-screening analysis. If only 50% of drivers killed
are autopsied, there is nothing known about alcohol and drug use by the remaining 50%.
Furthermore, information is lacking on the scope of the analytical toxicology, such as the
number of drugs tested, the body fluids analyzed, and the analytical cutoff concentrations for
reporting positive results (Berning and Smither 2014). In this connection, it is important to
appreciate that a positive drug finding does not necessarily mean the driver was impaired by
that substance or that the driver was to blame for the road traffic crash (Berghaus et al. 2007).

1.2.1 Role of Alcohol

An early reminder that consumption of alcohol before driving was a dangerous activity
appeared in Quarterly Journal of Inebriety in 1904 (Crothers 1904). This editorial mentions
an investigation of 25 accidents involving “motor wagons” in which 20 drivers were killed
or fatally injured, and 19 of the victims had used spirits within an hour or more of the
disaster. This editorial probably represents the first epidemiological data linking risk of a
crash with drinking alcohol before driving. The editorial ended with the warning: “With
the increasing popularity of these wagons, accidents of this kind will rapidly multiply, and
we invite our readers to make notes of disasters of this kind.”
During the following decades, information was accumulating from different sources
that between 20% and 50% of drivers killed in crashes had been drinking alcohol and
that their BAC at autopsy exceeded the legal limit for driving in that particular country.
In Norway and Sweden, where the statutory limit is 0.02 g%, statistics showed that 20%–
25% of crash victims had a punishable BAC (Gjerde et al. 2011; Jones et al. 2009), whereas in
many US states, 30%–40% of drivers killed were above the 0.08 g% limit (Voas et al. 2012).
Alcohol-positive drivers were overrepresented in single-vehicle crashes, which supports
8 Alcohol, Drugs, and Impaired Driving

the notion that alcohol impairment was a causative factor in the crash. Moreover, the mean
autopsy BAC in drivers killed in traffic crashes is often in the 0.15–0.19 g% range, which is
a level associated with gross impairment of driving skills.
The relationship between BAC and diminished performance has been verified in hun-
dreds of experiments using different types of methodology. One approach is the use of
controlled drinking experiments—with healthy volunteers under laboratory conditions,
which usually involve moderate doses of ethanol (Drew et al. 1959). Subjects are required
to perform a battery of cognitive and psychomotor tests before they drink alcohol, to
establish baseline values, and the same tests are administered again at various times
post-dosing (Goldberg 1943). The behavioral test scores are then compared with BAC or
breath-alcohol concentration (BrAC) at the time of testing. Many such laboratory studies
find a strong association between performance decrement (error rates) and BAC, but a
lot also depends on complexity of the task, the time after drinking, and whether testing
was done on the absorptive or postabsorptive limb of the BAC curve (Jongen et al. 2016;
Martin et al. 2013).
Controlled drinking studies in a laboratory environment are unlike real-world conditions,
because the volunteer subjects almost always consume a bolus dose of ethanol in 15–30 min-
utes after an overnight fast (Jones and Neri 1994). Under these conditions, absorption of
ethanol into the blood is fast and initial impairment tends to be more pronounced. Thereafter
a subject’s performance in the behavioral tests rapidly improves and, by 90–120 minutes post
dosing, their test scores are often not significantly different from baseline measurements
before drinking. The general finding from many such studies is that both subjective feelings
of intoxication and objective measures of impairment are more pronounced on the rising
limb of the BAC curve and close to the peak (Jones and Neri 1985, 1994). On reaching the
postabsorptive phase, the volunteer subjects feel tired and sleepy and might perform worse
in behavioral tests for these reasons. Acute tolerance develops to impairment effect during a
single exposure to ethanol; results of cognitive and psychomotor tests 2–3 hours after drink-
ing are not significantly different from pre-drinking scores, despite BAC still being elevated
and above 0.05–0.08 g% (Jones and Neri 1994; Mellanby 1920).
Another methodological approach to establish a relationship between BAC and impair-
ment of driving skills makes use of closed track driving courses. This approach allows for
evaluating complex maneuvers at speed, avoiding traffic cones, and other tasks that require
divided attention, and braking in emergency situations (Bjerver and Goldberg 1950; Laurell
1977). Fairly sophisticated computer-aided tests are available to investigate other skills and
traits associated with driving, such as tracking, divided attention, and simple and choice
reaction times, all of which are relevant for traffic safety (Strand et al. 2016).
In the Netherlands, investigators have developed on-the-road driving tests to mea-
sure impairment from alcohol or other drugs, using specially designed dual-controlled
vehicles with electronic recording of various aspects of the driving. The test subject
is expected to drive on the normal highway in the traffic flow and is required to hold
a steady lateral position and maintain a constant speed (O’Hanlon 1984; Ramaekers
2017; Verster and Roth 2011). The measure of impairment caused by psychoactive sub-
stances is the standard deviation of lateral position (SDLP), which is a quantitative
­i ndication of the amount of weaving during the driving task. Studies have shown that
SDLP is a reliable and stable index of driving performance and provides an e­ asily
­u nderstood quantitative measure of weaving with high test-retest reproducibility.
The SDLP shows a significant dose–response relationship to increasing levels of BAC,
Another random document with
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And islands that were the Hesperides
Of all my boyish dreams.
And the burden of that old song,
It murmurs and whispers still:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

I remember the black wharves and the slips,

And the sea-tides tossing free;
And Spanish sailors with bearded lips,
And the beauty and mystery of the ships,
And the magic of the sea.
And the voice of that wayward song
Is singing and saying still:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

I remember the bulwarks by the shore,

And the fort upon the hill;
The sunrise gun, with its hollow roar,
The drum-beat repeated o’er and o’er,
And the bugle wild and shrill.
And the music of that old song
Throbs in my memory still:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

I remember the sea-fight far away,

How it thundered o’er the tide!
And the dead captains, as they lay
In their graves, o’erlooking the tranquil bay,
Where they in battle died.
And the sound of that mournful song
Goes through me with a thrill:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

I can see the breezy dome of groves,

 The shadows of Deering’s Woods;
And the friendships old and the early loves
Come back with a sabbath sound, as of doves
In quiet neighborhoods.
And the verse of that sweet old song,
It flutters and murmurs still:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

I remember the gleams and glooms that dart

Across the school-boy’s brain;
The song and the silence in the heart,
That in part are prophecies, and in part
Are longings wild and vain.
And the voice of that fitful song
Sings on, and is never still:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

There are things of which I may not speak;

There are dreams that cannot die;
There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak,
And bring a pallor into the cheek,
And a mist before the eye.
And the words of that fatal song
Come over me like a chill:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

Strange to me now are the forms I meet

When I visit the dear old town;
But the native air is pure and sweet,
And the trees that o’ershadow each well-known street,
As they balance up and down,
Are singing the beautiful song,
Are sighing and whispering still:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

And Deering’s Woods are fresh and fair,

And with joy that is almost pain
My heart goes back to wander there,
And among the dreams of the days that were
I find my lost youth again.
And the strange and beautiful song,
The groves are repeating it still:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”
 SUBLIME SELECTIONS IN POETRY

SONG OF THE MYSTIC

By Abram J. Ryan

I walk down the Valley of Silence—

Down the dim, voiceless valley—alone!
And I hear not the fall of a footstep
Around me, save God’s and my own;
And the hush of my heart is as holy
As hovers where angels have flown!

Long ago was I weary of voices

Whose music my heart could not win;
Long ago was I weary of noises
That fretted my soul with their din;
Long ago was I weary of places
Where I met but the human—and sin.

I walked in the world with the worldly;

I craved what the world never gave;
And I said: “In the world each Ideal,
That shines like a star on life’s wave,
Is wrecked on the shores of the Real,
And sleeps like a dream in a grave.”

And still did I pine for the Perfect,

And still found the False with the True;
I sought ’mid the Human for Heaven,
But caught a mere glimpse of its Blue:
And I wept when the clouds of the Mortal
Veiled even that glimpse from my view.

And I toiled on, heart-tired of the Human,

And I moaned ’mid the mazes of men,
Till I knelt, long ago, at an altar
And I heard a voice call me. Since then
I walk down the Valley of Silence
That lies far beyond mortal ken.

Do you ask what I found in the Valley?

’Tis my Trysting-Place with the Divine.
And I fell at the feet of the Holy,
And above me a voice said: “Be mine.”
And there rose from the depths of my spirit
An echo—“My heart shall be thine.”

Do you ask how I live in the Valley?

I weep—and I dream—and I pray.
But my tears are as sweet as the dew-drops
That fall on the roses in May;
And my prayer, like a perfume from Censers,
Ascendeth to God night and day.

In the hush of the Valley of Silence

I dream all the songs that I sing;
And the music floats down the dim Valley,
Till each finds a word for a wing,
That to hearts, like the Dove of the Deluge,
A message of Peace they may bring.

But far on the deep there are billows

That never shall break on the beach;
And I have heard songs in the Silence
That never shall float into speech;
And I have had dreams in the Valley
Too lofty for language to reach.

And I have seen Thoughts in the Valley—

Ah me! how my spirit was stirred!
And they wear holy veils on their faces,
Their footsteps can scarcely be heard;
They pass through the Valley like Virgins,
 Too pure for the touch of a word!

Do you ask me the place of the Valley,

Ye hearts that are harrowed by Care?
It lieth afar between mountains,
And God and His angels are there:
And one is the dark mount of Sorrow,
And one the bright mountain of Prayer.

THE SEA
By Barry Cornwall

The sea! the sea! the open sea!

The blue, the fresh, the ever free!
Without a mark, without a bound,
It runneth the earth’s wide regions round;
It plays with the clouds, it mocks the skies,
Or like a cradled creature lies.

I’m on the sea, I’m on the sea,

I am where I would ever be,
With the blue above and the blue below,
And silence wheresoe’er I go.
If a storm should come and awake the deep,
What matter? I shall ride and sleep.

I love, oh! how I love to ride

On the fierce, foaming, bursting tide,
Where every mad wave drowns the moon,
And whistles aloft its tempest tune,
And tells how goeth the world below,
And why the southwest wind doth blow!

I never was on the dull, tame shore

But I loved the great sea more and more,
And backward flew to her billowy breast,
Like a bird that seeketh her mother’s nest,—
And a mother she was and is to me,
For I was born on the open sea.

The waves were white, and red the morn,

In the noisy hour when I was born;
The whale it whistled, the porpoise rolled,
And the dolphins bared their backs of gold;
And never was heard such an outcry wild,
As welcomed to life the ocean child.

I have lived since then, in calm and strife,

Full fifty summers a rover’s life,
With wealth to spend, and a power to range,
But never have sought or sighed for change,
And death, whenever he comes to me,
Shall come on the wide, unbounded sea!

THE GREAT ADVANCE

By Thomas Walsh

In my heart is the sound of drums

And the sweep of the bugles calling;
The day of the Great Adventure comes,
And the tramp of feet is falling, falling,
Ominous falling, everywhere,
By street and lane, by field and square—
To answer the Voice appealing!

One by one they have put down

The tool, the pen, and the racquet;
One by one they have donned the brown
And the blue, the knapsack and jacket;
With a smile for the friend of a happier day,
With a kiss for the love that would bid them stay—
They are off by the train and packet.

What fate, what star, what sun, what field,

 What sea shall know their daring?
Shall the battle reek or the dead calm yield
Their wreaths that are preparing?
Shall they merely stand and wait the call?
Shall they hear it, rush and slay and fall?—
What matter?—their swords are baring!

We stand in the crowds that see them go—

We who are old and weak, unready;
We see the red blood destined to flow
Flushing their cheeks, as with footstep steady
With a tramp and a tramp, they file along,
Our brave, our true, our young, our strong—
And the fever burns us fierce and heady.

With God, then forth, by sea and land,

To your Adventure beyond story,
No Argonaut, no Crusader band
Ere passed with such exceeding glory!
Though ye seek fields both strange and far,
Ye are at home where heroes are!
Such is the prayer we send your star—
We who are weak and old and hoary.

WHEN THE GRASS SHALL COVER ME

By Ina Coolbrith

When the grass shall cover me,

Head to foot where I am lying,—
When not any wind that blows,
Summer-blooms nor winter-snows,
Shall awake me to your sighing:
Close above me as you pass,
You will say, “How kind she was,”
You will say, “How true she was,”
When the grass grows over me.
 When the grass shall cover me,
Holden close to earth’s warm bosom,—
While I laugh, or weep, or sing,
Nevermore for anything,
You will find in blade and blossom,
Sweet small voices, odorous,
Tender pleaders in my cause,
That shall speak me as I was—
When the grass grows over me.

When the grass shall cover me!

Ah, beloved, in my sorrow
Very patient, I can wait,
Knowing that, or soon or late,
There will dawn a clearer morrow:
When your heart will moan: “Alas!
Now I know how true she was;
Now I know how dear she was”—
When the grass grows over me!

—Copyright by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, Mass., and used

by kind permission of author and publisher.

RIGHTEOUS WRATH
By Henry Van Dyke

There are many kinds of hate, as many kinds of fire;

And some are fierce and fatal with murderous desire;
And some are mean and craven, revengeful, selfish, slow,
They hurt the man that holds them more than they hurt his foe.

And yet there is a hatred that purifies the heart.

The anger of the better against the baser part,
Against the false and wicked, against the tyrant’s sword,
Against the enemies of love, and all that hate the Lord.

O cleansing indignation, O flame of righteous wrath,

Give me a soul to see thee and follow in thy path!
Save me from selfish virtue, arm me for fearless fight,
And give me strength to carry on, a soldier of the Right!

—Outlook.

APOSTROPHE TO THE OCEAN

By Lord Byron

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll!

Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin,—his control
Stops with the shore: upon the watery plain,
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man’s ravage, save his own,
When for a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknell’d, uncoffin’d, and unknown.

TO THE SIERRAS
By J. J. Owen

Ye snow-capped mountains, basking in the sun,

Like fleecy clouds that deck the summer skies,
On you I gaze, when day’s dull task is done,
 Till night shuts out your glories from my eyes.

For stormy turmoil, and ambition’s strife,

I find in you a solace and a balm,—
Derive a higher purpose, truer life,
From your pale splendor, passionless and calm.

Mellowed by distance, all your rugged cliffs,

And deep ravines, in graceful outlines lie;
Each giant form in silent grandeur lifts
Its hoary summit to the evening sky.

I reck not of the wealth untold, concealed

Beneath your glorious coronal of snows,
Whose budding treasure yet but scarce revealed,
Shall blossom into trade—a golden rose.

A mighty realm is waking at your feet

To life and beauty, from the lap of Time,
With cities vast, where millions yet shall meet,
And Peace shall reign in majesty sublime.

Rock-ribbed Sierras, with your crests of snow,

A type of manhood, ever strong and true,
Whose heart with golden wealth should ever glow,
Whose thoughts in purity should symbol you.

SUNSET
By Ina Coolbrith

Along yon purple rim of hills,

How bright the sunset glory lies!
Its radiance spans the western skies,
And all the slumbrous valley fills:

Broad shafts of lurid crimson, blent

With lustrous pearl in massed white;
And one great spear of amber light
That flames o’er half the firmament!

Vague, murmurous sounds the breezes bear;

A thousand subtle breaths of balm,
From some far isle of tropic calm,
Are borne upon the tranced air.

And, muffling all its giant-roar,

The restless waste of waters, rolled
To one broad sea of liquid gold,
Goes singing up the shining shore!

SOMETHING TO LOVE
By William Bansman

There are beautiful thoughts in the day-dreams of life,

When youth and ambition join hands for the strife;
There are joys for the gay, which come crowding apace,
And hang out the rainbow of hope for the race;
There are prizes to gain, which ascend as we climb,
But the struggle to win them makes effort sublime.
Each cloud that arises has fingers of gold,
Inviting the timid and nerving the bold;
Each sorrow is tempered with something of sweet,
And the crag, while it frowns, shows a niche for the feet.
There are charms in the verdure which nature has spread,
And the sky shows a glory of stars overhead,
And the zephyrs of summer have voices to woo,
As well as to bear the perfumes from the dew;
There are gushes of transport in dreams of the night,
When memory garners its thoughts of delight,
And the soul seeks its kindred, and noiselessly speaks,
In the smiles and the blushes of health-blooming cheeks.
There are rapturous melodies filling the heart,
With emotions which nothing beside could impart;
And yet, though this cumulous picture may show
The brightest of joys which ambition would know—
Though the heaven it opens is one of surprise,
All gorgeous with hope, and prismatic with dyes,
Satiety follows these transports of bliss,
And the heart asks a lodgment more real than this;
Like the dove, it will wander, and still, like the dove,
Come back, till it rests upon something to love.

OUT IN THE FIELDS WITH GOD

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The little cares that fretted me,

I lost them yesterday
Among the fields above the sea,
Among the winds at play,
Among the lowing of the herds,
The rustling of the trees,
Among the singing of the birds,
The humming of the bees.
The foolish fears of what may happen,
I cast them all away
Among the clover-scented grass,
Among the new-mown hay,
Among the husking of the corn
Where drowsy poppies nod,
Where ill thoughts die and good are born,
Out in the fields with God.

BROTHERHOOD
By Edwin Markham

The crest and crowning of all good,

Life’s final star, is Brotherhood;
For it will bring again to Earth
Her long-lost Poesy and Mirth;
Will send new light on every face,
A kingly power upon the race.
And till it come, we men are slaves,
And travel downward to the dust of graves.

Come, clear the way, then, clear the way:

Blind creeds and kings have had their day.
Break the dead branches from the path:
Our hope is in the aftermath—
Our hope is in heroic men,
Star-led to build the world again.
To this Event the ages ran:
Make way for Brotherhood—make way for Man.

—Copyright by Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, and used by

kind permission of author and publisher.

MORNING
By Edward Rowland Sill

I entered once, at break of day,

A chapel, lichen-stained and gray,
Where a congregation dozed and heard
An old monk read from a written Word.
No light through the window-panes could pass,
For shutters were closed on the rich stained glass,
And in a gloom like the nether night,
The monk read on by a taper’s light,
Ghostly with shadows that shrunk and grew
As the dim light flared on aisle and pew;
And the congregation that dozed around
Listened without a stir or sound—
Save one, who rose with wistful face,
And shifted a shutter from its place.
Then light flashed in like a flashing gem—
For dawn had come unknown to them—
And a slender beam, like a lance of gold,
Shot to the crimson curtain-fold,
Over the bended head of him
Who pored and pored by the taper dim;
And I wondered that, under the morning ray,
When night and shadow were scattered away,
The monk should bow his locks of white
By a taper’s feebly flickering light—
Should pore and pore, and never seem
To notice the golden morning beam.

THE PETRIFIED FERN

Anonymous

In a valley, centuries ago,

Grew a little fern leaf, green and slender,
Veining delicate and fibers tender;
Waving when the wind crept down so low.
Rushes tall, and moss, and grass grew ’round it,
Playful sunbeams darted in and found it,
Drops of dew stole in by night, and crown’d it;
But no foot of man e’er trod that way;
Earth was young and keeping holiday.

Monster fishes swam the silent main,

Stately forests waved their giant branches,
Mountains hurled their snowy avalanches,
Mammoth creatures stalked across the plain;
Nature reveled in grand mysteries:
But the little fern was not of these,
Did not number with the hills and trees;
Only grew and waved its wild sweet way,
None ever came to note it day by day.

Earth one time put on a frolic mood,

 Heaved the rocks and changed the mighty motion
Of the deep, strong currents of the ocean,
Moved the plain and shook the haughty wood,
Crushed the little fern in soft moist clay,—
Covered it, and hid it safe away.
Oh, the long, long centuries since that day!
Oh, the agony! Oh, life’s bitter cost,
Since that useless little fern was lost!

Useless? Lost? There came a thoughtful man,

Searching Nature’s secrets, far and deep;
From a fissure in a rocky steep
He withdrew a stone, o’er which there ran
Fairy pencilings, a quaint design,
Veinings, leafage, fibers clear and fine!
So, I think God hides some souls away,
Sweetly to surprise us, the last day.

SLEEP
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Of all the thoughts of God that are

Borne inward unto souls afar,
Among the Psalmist’s music deep,
Now tell me if that any is
For gift or grace surpassing this,—
“He giveth his beloved sleep”?

What would we give to our beloved?

The hero’s heart, to be unmoved,—
The poet’s star-tuned harp, to sweep,—
The patriot’s voice, to teach and rouse,—
The monarch’s crown, to light the brows?
“He giveth his beloved sleep.”

What do we give to our beloved?

A little faith, all undisproved,—
A little dust to over weep,—
And bitter memories, to make
The whole earth blasted for our sake,
“He giveth his beloved sleep.”

“Sleep soft, beloved!” we sometimes say,

But have no tune to charm away
Sad dreams that through the eyelids creep;
But never doleful dream again
Shall break the happy slumber when
“He giveth his beloved sleep.”

O earth so full of dreary noises!

O men with wailing in your voices!
O delved gold the wailers heap!
O strife, O curse, that o’er it fall!
God strikes a silence through you all,
And “giveth his beloved sleep.”

His dews drop mutely on the hill,

His cloud above it saileth still,
Though on its slope men sow and reap;
More softly than the dew is shed,
Or cloud is floated over head,
“He giveth his beloved sleep.”

For me, my heart, that erst did go

Most like a tired child at a show,
That sees through tears the mummers leap,
Would now its wearied vision close,
Would child-like on His love repose
Who “giveth his beloved sleep.”

LABOR
By Frank Soule
Despise not labor! God did not despise
The handicraft which wrought this gorgeous globe,
That crowned its glories with yon jeweled skies,
And clad the earth in nature’s queenly robe.
He dug the first canal—the river’s bed,
Built the first fountain in the gushing spring,
Wove the first carpet for man’s haughty tread,
The warp and woof of his first covering.
He made the pictures painters imitate,
The statuary’s first grand model made,
Taught human intellect to re-create,
And human ingenuity its trade.
Ere great Daguerre had harnessed up the sun,
Apprenticeship at his new art to serve,
A greater artist greater things had done,
The wondrous pictures of the optic nerve.
There is no deed of honest labor born
That is not Godlike; in the toiling limbs
Howe’er the lazy scoff, the brainless scorn,
God labored first; toil likens us to Him.
Ashamed of work! mechanic, with thy tools,
The tree thy ax cut from its native sod,
And turns to useful things—go tell to fools,
Was fashioned in the factory of God.
Go build your ships, go build your lofty dome,
Your granite temple, that through time endures,
Your humble cot, or that proud pile of Rome,
His arm has toiled there in advance of yours.
He made the flowers your learned florists scan,
And crystallized the atoms of each gem,
Ennobled labor in great nature’s plan,
And made it virtue’s brightest diadem.
Whatever thing is worthy to be had,
Is worthy of the toil by which ’tis won,
Just as the grain by which the field is clad
Pays back the warming labor of the sun.
’Tis not profession that ennobles men,
 ’Tis not the calling that can e’er degrade,
The trowel is as worthy as the pen,
The pen more mighty than the hero’s blade.
The merchant, with his ledger and his wares,
The lawyer with his cases and his books,
The toiling farmer, with his wheat and tares,
The poet by the shaded streams and nooks,
The man, whate’er his work, wherever done,
If intellect and honor guide his hand,
Is peer to him who greatest state has won,
And rich as any Rothschild of the land.
All mere distinctions based upon pretense,
Are merely laughing themes for manly hearts.
The miner’s cradle claims from men of sense
More honor than the youngling Bonaparte’s.
Let fops and fools the sons of toil deride,
On false pretensions brainless dunces live;
Let carpet heroes strut with parlor pride,
Supreme in all that indolence can give,
But be not like them, and pray envy not
These fancy tom-tit burlesques of mankind,
The witless snobs in idleness who rot,
Hermaphrodite ’twixt vanity and mind.
O son of toil, be proud, look up, arise,
And disregard opinion’s hollow test,
A false society’s decrees despise,
He is most worthy who has labored best.
The scepter is less royal than the hoe,
The sword, beneath whose rule whole nations writhe,
And curse the wearer, while they fear the blow,
Is far less noble than the plow and scythe.
There’s more true honor on one tan-browned hand,
Rough with the honest work of busy men,
Than all the soft-skinned punies of the land,
The nice, white-kiddery of upper ten.
Blow bright the forge—the sturdy anvil ring,
It sings the anthem of king Labor’s courts,
And sweeter sounds the clattering hammers bring,
Than half a thousand thumped piano-fortes.
Fair are the ribbons from the rabbet-plane,
As those which grace my lady’s hat or cape,
Nor does the joiner’s honor blush or wane
Beside the lawyer, with his brief and tape.
Pride thee, mechanic, on thine honest trade,
’Tis nobler than the snob’s much vaunted pelf.
Man’s soulless pride his test of worth has made,
But thine is based on that of God himself.

LINCOLN, THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE

By Edwin Markham

When the Norn-Mother saw the Whirlwind Hour,

Greatening and darkening as it hurried on,
She bent the strenuous Heavens and came down
To make a man to meet the mortal need.
She took the tried clay of the common road—
Clay warm yet with the genial heat of Earth,
Dashed through it all a strain of prophecy;
Then mixed a laughter with the serious stuff.
It was a stuff to wear for centuries,
A man that matched the mountains, and compelled
The stars to look our way and honor us.

The color of the ground was in him, the red earth;

The tang and odor of the primal things—
The rectitude and patience of the rocks;
The gladness of the wind that shakes the corn;
The courage of the bird that dares the sea;
The justice of the rain that loves all leaves;
The pity of the snow that hides all scars;
The loving-kindness of the wayside well;
The tolerance and equity of light
That gives as freely to the shrinking weed