The force says it's developed groundbreaking technology that can detect the designer drug in saliva and blood samples.

In what they're claiming as a world-first, Victorian police will this week start testing and charging drivers who've taken the drug ecstasy.

The force says it's developed groundbreaking technology that can detect the designer drug in saliva and blood samples.

Martin Boorman, officer in charge of the traffic section's technical branch, explained the significance of the new test to Samantha Donovan.

MARTIN BOORMAN: Victoria is the first jurisdiction to embark on a truly random testing process for drugs in drivers. Most jurisdictions overseas have a requirement for probable cause or reasonable suspicion - there had to be some evidence of bad driving.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: So what's actually the procedure when you pull someone over?

MARTIN BOORMAN: Well, when we pull somebody over... it's similar to a preliminary breath testing station for alcohol. People are selected out of a line of traffic, a policeman approaches them and requires them to provide a sample of saliva on a testing device.

That process takes about five minutes and that indicates to us whether an illicit drug is present, now being Delta-9-THC, which is cannabis, methamphetamine, which is speed, and now ecstasy.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: You've previously been testing for the first two in a trial. How have you further developed the test to now be able to detect ecstasy?

MARTIN BOORMAN: Well, the testing devices have been refined, in the course of the process, to increase their usefulness to us in terms of an enforcement process. And we now have the ability to screen these people for these drugs and the samples are sent to a laboratory for confirmation as to what particular drug is present.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: You'd have to be pretty confident, I imagine, that the test can stand up in court?

MARTIN BOORMAN: The roadside test is a screening test. What we rely on as evidence in court is the results of the laboratory analysis done in laboratory conditions on highly specific technology.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Are you going to be targeting particular areas, even though this is a random test?

MARTIN BOORMAN: Well right throughout the program we've been targeting high-risk areas and groups, as in the transport routes with heavy vehicle drivers, places of entertainment where people go to dance parties and rave parties. And we also do operations in conjunction with our random breath-testing program to test the general public.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Will other Australian jurisdictions pick up the test?

MARTIN BOORMAN: I'm sure that other jurisdictions will be interested in investigating it. And in fact I know that other jurisdictions are putting into place, or have put into place, similar programs to us since we started.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: South Australia is one of those, I believe?

MARTIN BOORMAN: That's correct, South Australia has commenced operations, Tasmania has commenced operations, New South Wales is looking at starting a trial process in the near future.

And also Queensland and Western Australia are investigating putting something into place.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Has there been interest from overseas as well?

MARTIN BOORMAN: Yes, there's been considerable interest from overseas - some of the jurisdictions in North America, Europe, and also some interest from some Asian countries.

ELEANOR HALL: That's Martin Boorman, the Victoria Police officer in charge of the Traffic Alcohol Section's technical branch, and he was speaking to Samantha Donovan in Melbourne.