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- Dieting could lead to a positive test
- Bulletin 7: Clinical and medico-legal implications of drug testing for cannabis
- Rise in use of drug tests to sack staff without redundancy pay
- Schoolies face roadside drug tests on way to Queensland
- Cops settle innocent driver’s drug test case
- Police ‘hit list’ drawn up to catch drug-using officers
- Staff shortages after 80 per cent fail drug test
- Study Goes to Pot
- More drug testing leads to more methods of deception
- Drug-driving test kits get green light
Dieting could lead to a positive test
CANNABIS smokers beware: stress or dieting might trigger “reintoxication”, resulting in a positive drug test long after you last used the drug.
The main psychoactive ingredient of cannabis is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and once in the body it is readily absorbed into fat cells. Over the next few days it slowly diffuses back into the blood. Since THC is taken up by fat more readily than it diffuses out, continual intake means some THC can remain in the fat cells.
It has been suggested that stored THC can be released at a later date in situations where the body’s fat is rapidly broken down. This is based on anecdotal reports of spikes in blood cannabinoid levels in people who have not taken the drug recently but have experienced extreme stress or rapid weight loss.
Bulletin 7: Clinical and medico-legal implications of drug testing for cannabis
John H. Lewis1 PhD. 1Visiting Fellow, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW
Key points
- Cannabis is the most prevalent illicit drug found in routine clinical and medico-legal drug testing
- The amount of cannabis metabolite found in urine cannot be correlated with time of use, amount ingested or pharmacological effect
- Urine is the easiest biological fluid for identifying recent cannabis use Baseline urinary Carboxy-THC levels are very useful in differentiating between infrequent, frequent and heavy users of cannabis
- Successive Carboxy-THC: creatinine ratios can establish continued use or reduction to abstinence
- Caution should be exercised in interpreting cannabis results if fluids other than urine are used for testing
In Australia, drug testing has been part and parcel of clinical management of patients on drug treatment programs since the late 1960s when methadone was introduced as a heroin substitute. Since then, the discipline has evolved into an industry encompassing public and private sector laboratories, forensic institutions and racing laboratories. The scope for drug testing has widened from clinical management to sport, the workplace, correctional institutions and the judicial system. Cannabis is one of many drug types commonly tested for in all these jurisdictions; it is paradoxically easy to detect in biological fluids but complex to interpret.
The rationale for drug testing people for cannabis is multifactorial. For patients on (essentially New South Wales) public drug treatment programs, clinicians have historically chosen not to screen for cannabinoids; the rationale being that heroin was the main drug of dependence, most clients smoked cannabis anyway and a toxicology report indicating cannabis use, could jeopardise an otherwise favourable progress report. However, for many patients, especially those in residential rehabilitation environments, a policy of “no drugs” specifically includes cannabis. In many drug treatment centres throughout NSW, concurrent use of cannabis can adversely affect client management1 and there is now a need for the monitoring of cannabis dependence. Australian defence forces and many heavy industries maintain a strict drug policy and may dismiss personnel for continued cannabis use.
Rise in use of drug tests to sack staff without redundancy pay
Employers are increasingly using drug testing to get rid of staff without having to make redundancy payouts, as a way of cutting costs during the recession, a charity has said.
Release, which focuses on drugs, the law and human rights, reported a four-fold increase in calls to its drugs team about problems with workplace testing in the first three months of 2009 compared with the same period last year.
In the first quarter of 2008, the team received 493 calls, with just 31 (6.2%) related to testing at work. In the first three months of this year, 548 calls were received with 145 (26.4%) about this issue.
In many cases callers have been getting in touch in a state of distress, having been tested for the first time after years in the same job. Often a programme of voluntary redundancies was announced, followed by workplace medicals for the remaining staff, including a drug test.
Sacking employees who test positive for illicit drugs allows employers to avoid making redundancy payouts. Cannabis, which can remain detectable for several weeks after use, is the substance causing the biggest problems for employees.
Schoolies face roadside drug tests on way to Queensland
SCHOOLIES will face roadside drug tests, with police planning to mouth-swab thousands of youngsters headed to Queensland over the next three weeks.
Three mobile drug-testing vans, kitted out with $1 million of testing and computer equipment, will be used to conduct the biggest ever drug sweep in the state.
Police will concentrate on the Pacific Highway heading north to Surfers Paradise.
The warning came as NSW police yesterday joined with interstate colleagues to launch Operation RAID, a national safety campaign that began at midnight last night.
Cops settle innocent driver’s drug test case
A Victorian man could receive up to $250,000 in an out-of-court settlement, after he was falsely labelled a drug user by police in a bungled roadside drug test three years ago.
Ballarat courier John de Jong, 43, found himself in the full glare of the media as police trumpeted their new drug testing equipment on December 13, 2004 in west suburban Yarraville.
He was the fourth driver tested and it came up positive for cannabis and amphetamines use and it was caught by the media who police had invited to record the testing.
Police claimed it was the world’s first positive drug driving test. The alleged find was broadcast on four Melbourne television news services that evening and was beamed around the world.
Mr de Jong found his wife Kay and teenage daughters in tears when he arrived home, embarrassed by the reports.
An independent laboratory later tested the sample and cleared Mr de Jong. The police lab later confirmed the finding.
Police ‘hit list’ drawn up to catch drug-using officers
SENIOR police have drawn up a hit list of officers to be drug-tested as soon as a new law is passed.
The law, expected to be passed in June, will allow Victoria Police to test employees if they have been involved in a “critical incident”, such as a shooting or high-speed chase resulting in an injury, or if there is a reasonable suspicion that they have been abusing drugs.
The Assistant Commissioner of the Ethical Standards Department, Luke Cornelius, told The Age there had been an increase in the detection of police dealing and using drugs in the past 18 months. He said it was not clear whether this was due to more police abusing drugs or the result of better intelligence.
“(The Ethical Standards Department) does have a hit list. There are a number of people who will be tested, based on the credible intelligence that we currently have, as soon as we’re able to,” Mr Cornelius said.
“If they’re found wanting, we will deal with them. Of course, if they come out with a clean bill of health, I can close the file.”
Mr Cornelius would not disclose how many police were on the hit list, only saying that the list was of “sufficient size” to convince the force there was a need for targeted testing.
Staff shortages after 80 per cent fail drug test
The meat industry wants to bring in seasonal workers from the Pacific Islands to meet a labour shortfall caused partly by up to 80 per cent of local applicants failing drug tests.
The industry has begun tripartite meetings with the Government and unions about a scheme similar to the new, recognised seasonal employer scheme for horticulture, which allows horticulturists to bring in up to 5000 workers from the Pacific for up to seven months a year.
Meat Industry Association adviser Robyn Deacon said the labour shortfall in the meat industry was smaller _ about 1000 in a workforce of 24,000.
But the industry faced the same challenges of finding seasonal labour in near-full-employment rural areas. The meatworks’ recent shift to drug testing all job applicants had heightened the problem.
Hamilton-based Affco, which runs 10 meatworks from Moerewa in the north to Awarua near Invercargill, started testing three years ago and said the number of job applicants who failed the test varied from area to area.
“At times it can be as high as 80 per cent,” said human resources manager Graeme Cox.
Study Goes to Pot
Drivers who use marijuana are less likely to cause road accidents than drunk drivers or even drug-free drivers, a study has found. The study, the most comprehensive of its kind in the world, prompted researchers to warn against diverting resources from anti-drink driving campaigns to campaigns against driving under the influence of drugs.
Conducted by a team from the University of Adelaide’s pharmacology department and Transport SA, the study used analyses of blood samples from 2500 drivers injured in accidents in South Australia. In their attempt to define whether cannabis and other drugs played a large role in road accidents, researchers used information from the police report on each crash to determine whether the injured driver was culpable.
Drug-free drivers caused the accidents in 53.5 per cent of cases. Injured drivers with a blood-alcohol concentration of more than 0.05 per cent were culpable in nearly 90 per cent of accidents they were involved in. Drivers with cannabis in their blood were less likely to cause an accident, with a culpability rate of 50.6 per cent.
More drug testing leads to more methods of deception
Yes, employees are getting more and more brazen in their efforts to falsify employers’ drug tests. But, employers are on to them and their efforts usually fail.
This according to Amitava Dasgupta, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Texas-Houston Medical School. After studying this topic for the last few years, he recently presented his findings to members of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry at its annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
“I became interested in the ways people cheat when our hospital started drug testing,” says Dasgupta. “I went home and called some 800 numbers I found online and found I could buy anything I wanted [to falsify a test] as long as I gave them my credit card number.” It’s unclear how many products are out there, he says, but new ones are hitting the market all the time.
In the past, some drug users added household products such as bleach, toilet bowl cleaner or vinegar to their urine. And while buying synthetic urine or urine from drug-free people has been the cheaters’ modus operandi for years now, says Dasgupta, the market now includes lots of new products that alter urine, either by ingesting them or by adding them to urine samples.
Marijuana is the most abused drug, says Dasgupta. Other drugs commonly detected in employee screenings are cocaine, amphetamines, phencyclidine (PCP or “angel dust”) and benzodiazepines (“benzos”). Now, employers are reporting more designer drugs such as ecstasy and date-rape drugs such as gamma-hydroxy acid (GHB), says Dasgupta.
Despite the proliferation of new products that help people fake their test results, says Dasgupta, the proportion of positive drug tests by employers is going down nationwide. Typically, employers outsource the testing to laboratories certified by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
According to SAMHSA, 42.9 percent of full-time workers are tested for illicit drugs or alcohol during the hiring process. And 29.6 percent of full-time workers are random-drug-tested by their employers.
Drug-driving test kits get green light
ROADSIDE tests for drug-driving are to be given the go-ahead in a bid to crack down on reckless motorists who go on the roads having taken illegal substances.
Ministers will confirm later this month that new roadside kits capable of spotting traces of drugs will be used across the country. It follows shocking figures which found that almost 20% of drivers involved in fatal accidents had traces of drugs in their system.
Police in Australia are already using the kits – known as ‘drugalysers’ – which test a motorist’s saliva. Police here would be able to charge guilty motorists under drink-driving laws, if the test was brought in.
The Home Office will publish guidance in the next two weeks setting out strict standards for the kits. Scottish ministers have now made it clear that, once they are available, they hope to roll them out across Scotland.
The move follows a campaign by the Conservative Party north and south of the Border to make drug-driving as socially unacceptable as drink-driving.
Surveys have shown that as many as one in five youngsters take to the wheel having taken drugs. However, punishing somebody for the offence has so far proven near impossible because of the lack of reliable tests. Police have been forced to rely on ‘common-sense tests’ such as asking motorists to walk in a straight line.