The Intox 5000 attempts to measure blood alcohol by measuring alcohol like chemicals in the infrared spectrum. Unfortunately, this device can not distinguish between substances with similar signatures at the infrared spectrum. Certain chemicals like acetone and ketones mimic alcohol in infrared analysis. When the body is in ketosis it produces keytones which mimic alcohol on the infrared spectrum.

Guy Sharpe, a Marietta Georgia Attorney, relayed this experience:

I want to share my experience this week with a client who advised that she was bulimic just before our motion hearing. When she hired me she advised that she blew .261 on the Intox 5000 and that she had nothing to drink on the day of her arrest for dui. I accepted this statement with some degree of wonderment. However, my personal experience with weight loss following the Scarsdale diet, which touts eating nothing but protein, and no carbs, resulted in my losing 2 pounds every day I strictly followed the diet, caused me to recollect that my body was in a state of ketosis when following the diet. Ketosis results in the body using your body fat for energy and the byproduct of that process is that you emit ketones through your breath and urine to eliminate the keytones. When I was on the diet I used ketostrips to dip in my urine to confirm that my body was in a state of ketosis. Ketones have a footprint similar with alcohol. I decided to get a court employee to administer an alcosensor III test to see if she would show a false positive for alcohol. She blew .192. She advised that she had nothing to eat that morning and when she does eat, she follows that with purging, so she stays in a state of ketosis. Wondering if the same result would come from an Intox 5000 test, I told Judge Carlisle about the situation and he agreed to have the City of Marietta Police administer an Intox 5000 test to see if it too would show a false positive for alcohol. She blew .145 and .136. Judge Carlisle asked if we would submit to a hgn test and she showed slight nystagmus at the far right, but I believe that the cop held the stimulus too far to the right and induced it. (I am NHTSA trained.) Now we had a false positive for alcohol from the alco III and the brand new Intox 5000 in the Marietta Police Dept., so the next thing to do was to send her out for a blood alcohol test, which she did after taking the above tests, and the results came back yesterday, 0.000, NEGATIVE FOR ALCOHOL. I expect the DUI will be dismissed.

I have heard that CMI, the manufacturer of the Intox 5000, supposedly has set up the machine to exclude things such as acetone, but the above experience proves positively that it does not exclude all substances similar to the footprint for alcohol. So, if you have a client, who has been fasting or is in a state of ketosis, the Intox 5000 will show a false positive for alcohol. You can buy ketostrips at your pharmacy to confirm whether or not your client is in a state of ketosis.

Don’t be blinded by government science. Question authority!

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