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President, JMJ Technologies
This article will provide a brief overview of existing drug testing technologies and approaches in a number of settings. It will offer a personal commentary from three decades of drug testing experience and participation in the development of the industry. It will also provide suggestions on the use of various specimens such as urine, hair and saliva alone and in combination. It will also address alternate testing specimens such as sweat, breath, surface and emerging technologies all with the goal of providing consumers of drug testing products a broader understanding of the current drug testing technologies available to them and a glimpse into the future.
Drug Testing in Clinical Settings
Robert L. DuPont, M.D.
President, Institute for Behavior and Health
Drug testing, the pinnacle of modern biotechnology, has evolved beyond urine testing to include testing in hair, saliva, and sweat and has moved out of the laboratory to include on-site testing with results available in a few minutes. Alcohol and drug abusers characteristically lie about their substance use to anyone who might want them to stop their use. Drug testing is now highly reliable in detecting the recent use of specific drugs as well as alcohol, thereby greatly enhancing substance abuse treatment and prevention. Drug testing is also useful in schools and in family-based efforts to prevent drug use. The biology of substance abuse as well as the technology of testing needs to be understood by anyone seeking to use testing to detect the recent use of addicting substances.
Drug Testing of Students
David Evans, J.D.
This article contains a legal overview of some issues surrounding student drug testing, a recounting of the benefits of testing, and a description of the testing process that protects the integrity of the procedure and the validity of the results.
Drug Testing In The Workplace: An Historical and Economic Examination
Calvina Fay
Honorary Professor, Universidad del Salvador
Executive Director, Drug Free America Foundation
Considerable evidence exists to show that drug abuse contributes to the frequency and intensity of many types of crime, from white-collar offenses and political corruption to property offenses and violence. Similar evidence exists to show that safety in the workplace and the profitability of businesses are directly affected by substance abuse.
Improving our understanding of the factors that influence abuse both on and off the job is important in developing interventions and strategies to reduce drug-related problems. Although we have not found the right answer to eradicating drug abuse, some progress has been made in reducing it and in defining the many facets of the problem.
We know that young people are at increased risk where there is parent–adolescent conflict, favorable parental attitudes to drug use, parental alcohol and drug problems, and parental approval of drug (e.g. alcohol) use in childhood or early adolescence, making it imperative that we reach out to parents/adults and educate them about the harms of drugs. One of the very few places that we have parents/adults as a captive audience is the workplace, making it an ideal arena for providing drug education and influencing their attitudes about drug use.
The federal government and much of the private business sector have adopted policies of making illicit drug use unacceptable either socially or in the workplace and utilized drug testing to enforce those policies. This strategy is aimed at reversing the levels of drug abuse and the losses that flow from it. This concept has garnered much support in Congress, the state legislatures, the business community, and a broad cross-section of the public in the United States and, to some extent, in other countries. It is not a total answer but is definitely a step in the right direction.
This article will examine the history of the evolution of drug-free workplace programs with drug testing as a cornerstone of such programs and will explore the cost/benefit ratio to such programs. |
