The Pennsylvania DUI Association presented a class to help local officers identify drivers impaired by drugs at the Lehigh Valley Hospital – Muhlenberg March 7.

The Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement training session was designed to prepare the 45 officers in attendance for the possibility of optional training to become a Drug Enforcement Expert.

Daryl LaPointe, one of the officers teaching the class, said there are seven DREs in Northampton and Lehigh counties and only about eight in the entire eastern portion of Pennsylvania.

These officers are experts at identifying if a person is impaired from drugs. They observe the physical and emotional signs the person is displaying and attempt to identify what, if any, type of drug the person is using.

The officer's impairment tests mixed with a healthy dose of knowledge about drug symptoms and reactions can help keep officers safe because knowing what they are up against helps them prepare and react appropriately.

"We are getting more and more [drivers] under the influence of drugs versus alcohol," Officer John Karb of the Bethlehem Police Department said. "The state is really pushing to get these guys off the road."

Karb and the other officers in the class learned what to look for when they come across an impaired driver. Dialated or restricted pupils, red eyes, a lack of balance and fidgety or twitchy behavior were just some of the symptoms the officers were told to watch for.

LaPointe said his DRE training has come in handy in many situations and has led to safer roads through the arrests of drug DUI offenders. He is called to assist other officers if they pull over a suspect of a drug related DUI.

He said DRE certification involves 72 hours of intensive class training, which is why there are so few officers certified as experts.

LaPointe said the most common drug related DUI arrests he makes are for marijuana and depressants, including pills such as Xanax.