Drugged Driving Information

Drugged Driving Information

Source : Irish News Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Drug driving detection rates double

DETECTION rates for drug driving have more than doubled in the past two years as the net tightens on motorists who drive under the influence of substances other than alcohol.

Almost 1,800 tests were carried out on motorists suspected of drug driving this year compared with 747 two years ago, and about three-quarters of them proved positive.

The pressure is to be intensified in 2009 with the testing authority, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, assigning extra staff and the Road Safety Authority (RSA) planning its first drug-driving campaign.

Trials in Australia aimed at developing a reliable device for random roadside drug testing are also being followed closely by officials, with the intention of introducing any successful prototype here.

“They are piloting a saliva test and it’s being tracked very carefully,” said Noel Brett, chief executive of the RSA.

“But we aren’t standing still. We’ve had a lot of training for gardaí on drug recognition, which means gardaí conducting random breath tests for drink driving or stopping someone for impaired driving are quicker to spot the signs of drug use.”

Because of the complexity of drug tests — which check for seven categories of drugs — the Medical Bureau of the Road Safety Authority only test blood and urine samples for drugs when specifically requested by gardaí but bureau head, Professor Denis Cusack said that the number of requests was growing rapidly.

“We test around 6,000 blood and urine samples a year for alcohol and now about 30% of those are also tested for drugs. It’s quite a significant increase on a few years ago and we would anticipate that next year there will be a further increase,” said Prof Cusack.

Drink driving still dominates testing however, and the bureau tests 15,000 breath samples for alcohol in a year.

There were also more than 18,000 drink-driving prosecutions last year compared with fewer than 100 drug-driving prosecutions per year in recent years.

This is mainly because many motorists found with drugs in their system are also over the drink-driving limit and both offences come under the same law which classes both as driving under the influence of an intoxicant.

“The issue of poly-drug misuse is increasingly prevalent,” Noel Brett explained.
“Someone who takes cocaine with a few bottles of beer might move on to cannabis to come down.

“But there is also an issue of drug misuse alone. A lot of people are ignorant of the effects.

“They might be very clear on how alcohol affects driving but have little realisation of, for example, what cocaine does,” he added.

The RSA’s new campaign will use television advertising and target nightclubs and third-level institutions to explain the dangers of drug driving.

Meanwhile, gardaí warned yesterday the annual Christmas clampdown on intoxicated driving would continue throughout the new year’s celebrations.

Road deaths have fallen from 336 last year to 275 to date but safety campaigners are pushing to reach a target of reducing fatalities to just above 200 by 2010.

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Unions on the Wrong Side of Drug Testing – Again

Random Drug Testing On Hold For Now

A federal judge has granted the request for a preliminary injunction the West Virginia American Federation of Teachers had filed. The group is challenging Kanawha County’s random drug testing policy for teachers and school workers.

The Kanawha County Board of Education approved the policy back in October.

Attorneys for the WV-AFT are arguing that random drug tests qualify as illegal searches and are prohibited under the Fourth Amendment. Attorneys for the Kanawha County Board of Education had argued that teachers and school service workers are in safety sensitive positions and, because of that, should be tested.

Another disgraceful action by the once proud Unions?

Source: WCHS-58 Charleston

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Oral Fluid Drug Tests Validated …

Study Finds Oral Fluid Drug Test Results Comparable to Urine Testing
December 2008

According to a recent large-scale study, laboratory-based oral fluid drug testing results are comparable to urine drug testing positive rates for the same classes of drugs. Results of the study, which was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, were presented by J. Michael Walsh, Ph.D., on October 29 at the annual meeting of the Society of Forensic Toxicologists in Phoenix.

Union Approves Random Drug Testing

December 2008 – Pacific Business News

Officials with the United Public Workers labor union on Tuesday signed an agreement with Maui County to allow its members to be randomly tested for alcohol and drugs in the workplace.

The agreement covers approximately 400 workers with the UPW, which include custodians, park caretakers, plumbers and carpenters.

Officials for the union and Maui Mayor Charmaine Tavares said Tuesday that the agreement is an attempt to provide safer work environments for laborers.

The agreement contains provisions for both random and reasonable suspicion testing, which will be implemented next spring.

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Boston Police Chiefs and Drug Abuse

Source Material: Boston Herald – December 2008

A voter-approved law reducing possession of small amounts of marijuana to a civil offense may threaten to unravel drug testing of police and other public employees, although there should be no link between the two topics.

The law, which goes into effect Jan. 2, prohibits government agencies and authorities from enforcing any punishment for pot possession with a fine greater than $100, according to the Massachusetts Police Chiefs Association, and defines possession so broadly as to include traces of pot in blood to urine to hair and fingernails.

“This very much threatens to undermine our ability to do the drug testing we do,” said Jack Collins, an attorney for the Massachusetts Police Chiefs Association.

Collins is calling for police departments to stop drug testing certain employees until the Legislature can explicitly allow public employees who fail drug tests to be punished. Without swift action, police departments and other agencies face lawsuits from unions protecting their members, Collins said.

“At this point, it looks like a violation of their rights, and then there’d be a lawsuit and it would cost thousands of dollars,” he warned.

( I am not an Attorney, like Mr. Collins, however, if a company has a written drug policy for safety purposes and follows the policy, drug testing is not only legal, but a legal and moral responsibility of every employer in today’s society)

Berkshire District Attorney David Capeless predicted the new law has far-reaching consequences for even school bus drivers and MBTA train operators, who could point to the law and say they can only be fined, not fired, for marijuana offenses.

“People given the critical job of looking after children or the general public, there’s a greater risk now they could be high,” Capeless warned.

Concerns about the viability of punishing people for flunking drug tests follow news reports of drug use by public workers. The Herald found that 77 MBTA employees have failed substance-abuse tests over the past three years.

A task force set up by Public Safety Secretary Kevin Burke is examining the implications of the new law and how it will be enforced. Burke’s office is expected to provide answers to questions of drug testing by year’s end.

Meanwhile, the Boston Police Department plans to continue drug testing regardless of any uncertainty, said Elaine Driscoll. “Enforcing our drug policies is non-negotiable,” Driscoll said.

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Canada & The Oral Fluid Drug Testing Standard

Canadian employers have occupational, health and safety responsibilities to ensure that workers are “fit for duty” and to ensure the overall health, safety and welfare of employees, contractors and public affected by their work.

This means proving diligence in minimizing or eliminating all potential risks, including those safety risks associated with unfit individuals on the job. At the same time, Canadian employers must adhere to the standards of human rights and privacy.

So how do employers balance their safety responsibilities with human right and privacy obligations in the Canadian workplace?

Cutting-edge oral fluid drug testing technologies are enabling Canadian employers to better achieve this balance. Drug & alcohol testing is quickly becoming a necessity in today’s workplace to manage those risks associated with unfit individuals on the job. Oral fluid testing technologies provide a more practical and workable approach for employers.

The reality is oral fluid testing technologies will become the standard for workplace testing in Canada, as already established in other countries around the world.

Some believe that these technologies are still in their infancy and not yet proven. In actuality, oral fluid testing has been around for decades and is much more integral and comprehensive than commonly known or promoted. They are also currently in wide use throughout Canada.

Ultimately, industry will drive further development and implementation as the benefits are better understood and realized. The benefits are simply too significant compared to traditional testing methods to ignore.

Oral fluid testing technologies address the serious safety & risk management issues facing Canadian employers.

Integrated OH&S International, the leading Canadian safety management company specializing in oral fluid testing technologies will be sponsoring a series of Lunch & Learn seminars over the next few months throughout Western Canada. The learning objective of these seminars is to clarify the truths about oral fluid testing technologies: the context within workplace testing in Canada, the science, the advantages, the limitations, the common myths, and the broader impact immediately and in the future for the Canadian workplace.

Red Deer, AB Thur, Dec 11th, 2008 Capri Hotel & Convention Centre
Saskatoon, SK Tues, Jan. 13th, 2009 Hilton Garden Inn
Regina, SK Thurs, Jan. 15th, 2009 Ramada Hotel & Convention Centre
Vancouver, BC Wed, Jan. 21st, 2009 Fairmont Hotel Vancouver
Edmonton, AB Wed, Jan. 28th, 2009 The Westin Edmonton
Winnipeg, MB Feb, 2009 (Date TBA) Venue TBA

For registration information please go to www.integratesafety.com email info@integratesafety.com or call 403-932-7955

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Hawaii Teachers Union Against Random Drug Testing Teachers

It’s your call, but the Teachers Union doesn’t appear to care about safety, or honoring their agreements:

Source: Washington Post – December 2008

HONOLULU, Dec. 20 — Hawaii public school teachers signed off on first-in-the-nation statewide random drug testing in exchange for pay raises, but now the state claims the educators are trying to take the money and run.

Since the teachers’ union approved the pact nearly two years ago, they have accepted the 11 percent boost in pay while fighting the random tests as an illegal violation of their privacy rights.

No teacher has been tested.

The showdown over teacher drug testing arose from the highly publicized arrests of six state Education Department employees in unrelated drug cases over a six-month period. One, Leilehua High School special education teacher Lee Anzai, pleaded guilty to selling more than $40,000 worth of crystal methamphetamine to an undercover agent.

None of the cases involved drug use in the classroom, and the teachers union argues that there are only a few bad apples among the 13,000 teachers in the state’s single public school district.

The union says it didn’t consent to truly random drug testing in the contract, which says the parties “agree to negotiate reasonable suspicion and random drug and alcohol testing procedures.”

The union’s definition of “random” is limited to a pool of teachers who go on field trips, work with disabled children, are frequently absent or have criminal records. (Odd definition by any standard?)

“Random testing isn’t going to suddenly increase test scores,” said Mike McCartney, executive director for the Hawaii State Teachers Association. “This is a huge distraction from how to make our schools better.” (Since when is student safety a distraction?)

The union says it will agree to drug testing in cases where there’s a reason to suspect drug use. A failed drug test would result in suspension or termination.

The state government believes teachers are trying to wiggle their way out of the deal.

The issue is awaiting a ruling from the Hawaii Labor Relations Board. In the meantime, the Board of Education has refused to spend money for drug testing, at $35 per teacher, because its members say those dollars would be better used in the classroom.

“I can’t understand why any average Joe, anyone of reasonable mind would object to this. It’s good for the schools, teachers and state,” said Marie Laderta, director of the Department of Human Resources Development, which negotiated the contract. “They’re just trying to get out of doing it.”

Only a handful of other school districts nationwide require random teacher drug testing of existing employees, many of them in Kentucky. The Hawaii State Teachers Association says only five school districts in the country have implemented random drug testing, although the National Education Association did not have a count of how many schools randomly test teachers.

In the Knott County school district in rural eastern Kentucky, one-fourth of teachers have been randomly tested for drugs annually since 2004, when administrators who wanted to give drug tests to students involved in extracurricular activities decided to hold teachers to the same standard.

“The teachers didn’t like the random part at first. Suspicionless testing is what they were concerned about,” said William Madden, director of pupil personnel for the seven-school, 2,570-student district. “It’s going real well. Everyone is accepting it.”

The Knott County testing started after a federal judge ruled that drug testing without suspicion of use had been upheld in a previous case in Knox County, Tenn. However, the Knox County case dealt with testing when teachers were hired rather than continuous, random testing of all teachers. Knox County does not randomly test its current teachers.

Hawaii’s Republican governor, Linda Lingle, sought random teacher drug testing after the spate of teacher arrests. The state could not produce evidence showing that teacher drug use is on the rise.

“There were a few cases all at once, and that’s why the issue came about,” said Dana Shishido, a third-grade teacher at Wheeler Elementary School who opposes random testing. “It was insulting to look at the pay raise, and that it had to come tied to the issue of random drug testing.”

The teachers approved the contract in April 2007 with a vote of 61 percent. By January, when they receive some of the pay increases, the starting annual pay for new teachers will be $43,157, and teachers with more than 33 years of experience will earn $79,170 a year.

“Few if any teachers test positive, because it’s not something that people who go into teaching do. It’s not part of the teaching culture,” said Michael Simpson, assistant general counsel for the National Education Association. “It’s an expensive program, and the money can be better spent reducing class sizes or providing needed resources.”

About 4 percent of teachers nationwide reported using illegal drugs, among the lowest rates of any profession, according to a 2007 study from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, an agency within the Health and Human Services Department. The federal study found the overall drug usage rate among full-time workers was 8.2 percent.

Honolulu city workers, including trash collectors, treatment plant workers and groundskeepers, agreed to random drug testing earlier this year. Those with commercial driver’s licenses and first responders such as police, paramedics and firefighters also must consent to random testing.

Regardless of the Labor Relations Board’s decision, the debate may end up in court. The American Civil Liberties Union has said it plans to sue the state claiming the program violates privacy rights, costs taxpayers too much money and does little to curb drug use. (The ACLU doesn’t create law. The Supreme Court has already ruled that random drug testing in legal.)

Hawaii has some of the strictest privacy protections in the nation written into the state constitution, and those rights would have to be weighed against the force of a binding contract approved by a majority vote.

Teachers, Drug Testing, Hawaii, & Obama

Source: Fox Report – Fox News

Should drug-dealing public school employees be permitted?

Should that even be a question?

It is if you live in Hawaii.

The headline in The Washington Post on Sunday morning sums it up: “Despite Agreement, Hawaii Teachers Resist Drug Testing.” Does it get much plainer than that? Not according to reporter Mark Niesse:

Hawaii public school teachers signed off on first-in-the-nation statewide random drug testing in exchange for pay raises, but now the state claims the educators are trying to take the money and run.

Since the teachers’ union approved the pact nearly two years ago, they have accepted the 11 percent boost in pay while fighting the random tests as an illegal violation of their privacy rights. No teacher has been tested.

The showdown over teacher drug testing arose from the highly publicized arrests of six state Education Department employees in unrelated drug cases over a six-month period. One, Leilehua High School special education teacher Lee Anzai, pleaded guilty to selling more than $40,000 worth of crystal methamphetamine to an undercover agent.

To sum up the situation, the public schools have a drug problem–but they don’t know how big a problem it is, because there’s no drug testing.

Most Americans have come to accept workplace drug-testing as a necessary part of any comprehensive anti-drug program, but not the Hawaii teachers union.

And as for public school employees, well, you might think they would want to do everything possible to root out druggies from their midst–but if you thought that, you thought wrong. Instead, the public employee unions seem determined to obstruct efforts to clean up the mess. Most Americans have come to accept workplace drug-testing as a necessary part of any comprehensive anti-drug program, but not the Hawaii teachers union.

To her credit, Hawaii’s Republican Governor, Linda Lingle, has been pushing for a tougher approach to testing. But she is just one voice; powerful as she might be, she can be overruled by the combined power of the bureaucracy and the judiciary, backed up by the overwhelming Democratic state legislature.

A thorough rethinking of America’s educational system has long been needed: Just how do we get good teachers into the schools, and bad teachers out of the schools? But if this drug-testing case is any sort of indicator, we aren’t likely to get such a rethink. And yet this is not just a state issue–it is a national issue.

By coincidence, President-elect Barack Obama is in Hawaii now, on vacation. He has nothing to do with this sort of local scandal–yet. But once he becomes President, he will have some indirect responsibility for these and many other thorny questions.

As President, his job duties will include improving education. Yes, education has traditionally been a local concern, but over the last 30 years, Presidents of both parties have embraced a substantial federal role in upgrading the schools, as a matter of social justice as well as international competitiveness. As President Ronald Reagan put it, back in 1983, we are “a nation at risk,” jeopardized by underperforming education.

And so while the recent “report cards” issued by the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests are ambiguous as to actual improvements in test scores, what’s decisively unambiguous is the degree to which America is falling behind the rest of the world. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. currently ranks 18th out of 36 industrialized countries. As one expert, Jacob Funk Kirkegaard of the Peterson Institute, told United Press International: “The United States has rested on its laurels way too long, Other countries have increasingly caught up and surpassed the United States.”

Some experts say that we need to inject market forces–choice and competition–into education to make it better and more cost-effective. Others say that we mostly need more money. But it’s hard to imagine any legitimate expert saying that our national education strategy should include drugged-up teachers and other school employees remaining on the job.

And beginning next year, President Obama’s education secretary will be a longtime friend and colleague, Arne Duncan, the current Chicago schools chief. Which is to say, Secretary Duncan should be able to pick up the phone and say, “Mr. President, I think that we have a problem in Hawaii, where the teachers unions are resisting the most obvious and basic of reforms.” It will then be revealing how the 44th President responds.

Boston’s Ridiculous Drug Policy

54 MBTA workers who failed drug tests still on job

BOSTON – More than 50 MBTA employees who failed random drug or alcohol tests over the last two years remain on the job.

The Boston Herald reviewed the transit system’s testing records after two trolley operators who were involved in accidents last month were fired after failing drug tests.

Of the more than 8,700 employees who were randomly tested since 2006, the review found 77 had failed, 23 of whom eventually lost their jobs or resigned. Fifty-four remain at work.
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The Herald reported that 12 bus drivers, two train operators and three streetcar operators were among those fired.

The T’s two-strike policy gives employees who fail substance abuse tests a second chance following a 40-day unpaid suspension. Operators who fail a test after an accident are fired immediately.

More than 3% of Truck Drivers on Drugs?

(Source-Daily Examiner-Australia)
A POLICE operation has revealed that one in 38 truck drivers to be driving under the influence of drugs.

The statistic comes from the results of a three-day roadside drug testing blitz run by police.

Most of the truck drivers pleaded guilty.
As the test only screened for THC (marijuana) and methamphetamine, the actual number of drivers using drugs improperly is likely much higher.
The abuse of prescription drugs is the number one threat across most of the world according to international drug councils.

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