Originally Posted by
chollie
I wouldn't be surprised to see these deployed in the international arrivals area at some time in the future.
Subject every pax entering the US, citizen or not, to a drug sniff.
I'm not sure how that would work, particularly if you were returning from AMS and had visited a coffee shop. (For that matter, can a US citizen be prosecuted in the US for having visited an AMS coffee shop? For having indulged at that coffee shop?)
At the very least, even if the pax could clear him/herself after an invasive and protracted secondary, he/she would probably be on a CBP watch list and face a secondary for the rest of his/her life.
Depending on the sensitivity of these ion detectors, false positives may be a real issue. The percentage of dollar bills in circulation in the US that test positive for cocaine is a extroardinarily high number.
The bigger issue will be at TSA checkpoints: I would be surprised if the agency removes the signatures of drugs from the system.... Which would encourage warrant less searches looking for drugs if it alarms. Aside from the prescription drug issue, I believe that there could be legal issues if a search were started if the machine alarmed only for drugs but not explosives.
I believe that these machines have an ion generator that penetrates the item under test and detects the reflections or changes to the returns based on the property of materials.