Join our customary world-renowned faculty members, and some new content for the course that has set the standard for preparing toxicologists, chemists, analysts, law enforcement officers, and traffic safety professionals, to have the most relevant and up to date information on the fundamentals of alcohol and its relationship to traffic safety and driver impairment.  

Our instructors are among the best-known names in their field from around the world, and all are involved in investigation, research and testimony on alcohol, drugs and traffic safety topics. We continually update our course content to ensure it reflects the issues of concern and interest to our students. Visit our faculty pages to see the current lecture topics, summaries and resource documents.

The course was founded in 1958, by Professor Robert F. Borkenstein, the inventor of the Breathalyzer® and a professor of Criminal Justice at Indiana University. It is a requirement in many state programs for analysts to complete the training before they go to court.   For over sixty years the course has helped over 5,000 individuals from every US state, and over 20 countries get quickly up to speed on:

• The fundamentals of the chemistry, toxicology and pharmacology of alcohol,
• How it is tested for in a forensically defensible manner in blood and breath,
• The specific effects of alcohol on the skills needed for safe driving,
• What we learned from laboratory based, and on-road driving studies with alcohol,
• The basis for the field sobriety tests used to detect impairment in drivers,
• Statistical treatment of test data and measurement uncertainty in alcohol analysis,
• Use of Widmark and retrograde extrapolation calculations,
• Typical court challenges to blood and breath alcohol test results,
• Basic testimony skills and what to expect when you go to court,
• The legal precedents that govern the admissibility of tests and expert testimony in court,
• The Capstone event is the faculty panel discussion of participants questions and concerns from cases or issues they have encountered in court.

 *Special Note:
The mission of this course as envisioned by our Founder is to educate individuals involved in the implementation of scientific programs of testing and calibration for blood and breath alcohol programs. There is a policy restricting attorney registration in the program. Attorneys can refer to other programs designed exclusively for the defense bar, such as the National College for DUI Defense (https://ncdd.com), or the Chemistry and the Law section of the American Chemical Society (https://www.chemistryandthelaw.org) that provide excellent training programs more suited to the defense bar.