2009 – August – Heroin Use Increasing, Police Say – ABC News

From California to New York, law enforcement agents are reporting a troubling rise in the use of heroin as availability of the drug rises and prices drop.

Heroin’s comeback: busts at levels not seen since the ’70s.

Law enforcement agencies across the country are reporting an increase in heroin use and busts.  In Sacramento on July 30, federal prosecutors indicted 21 people on charges of trafficking 440 pounds of heroin into California.

On July 25 in New York’s Suffolk County, police arrested two men with 17 pounds of uncut heroin in the biggest such bust in that county’s history.

On July 21, authorities nabbed an East Palo Alto, Calif., gang member with 70 pounds of heroin stashed inside a Lincoln Town Car.

The growing number of arrests — and deaths — reported around the country point to a resurgence of the drug not seen since the 1970s. But unlike three decades ago, authorities say that today’s heroin is much more potent. It is also finding its way to younger users, who are moving from prescription pills to harder drugs.

via Heroin Use Increasing, Police Say – ABC News.

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Prescription Drug Abuse – August 2009

Though fewer 8th-, 10th- and 12th-graders across the country report illicit drug use, those who do are increasingly turning to prescription drugs, according to a University of Michigan study released Tuesday at the White House.

The use of OxyContin, first measured by the researchers in 2002, was slightly higher this year for all three grades. At least one in every 20 high school seniors has tried the narcotic in the past year, researchers found.

Wilson Compton, division director at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said he was troubled by the finding.”Prescription drugs remain at high and very concerning levels,” he said. “We need to do a better job of communicating the risks of these prescription drugs and protecting youth from what can be dangerous in the long run.”

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Prescription drug abuse rising – August 7, 2009

An alarming trend in the United States is the increasing number of people dying from overdoses of prescription drugs.

“There’s a bigger problem with prescription drug use than there ever has been with meth, in terms of human fatalities,”

Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna

“The fact is, we’ve been seeing more people die from prescription drug use in Washington state than we have to automobile accidents.”

Stephen J. Pasierb, president and CEO of Partnership for a Drug-Free America, said prescription drug abuse is “pervasive across the nation” and that his organization focuses on educating parents to the dangers of medicine abuse.

“Kids who learn about the risk of drugs from their parents are up to 50 percent less likely to use drugs,” Pasierb said.

Pasierb noted that illegal drug use in the U.S. has been dropping during the past three years but that prescription drug abuse has been increasing. He said the problem is compounded because American society has a lax attitude toward prescription drug use, and many assume that “abusing medicine is not dangerous.” But such is not the case.

“There’s a significant weakening in drug-free attitudes,” Pasierb said. “Illegal drug use is going down, but it’s being replaced by prescription drug abuse.”

The most commonly abused prescription medicines, he said, are painkillers, stimulants, tranquilizers, sedatives and cough and cold remedies.

He said people abuse prescription medicines for partying, escapism, to relive anxiety, to either sleep or stay awake, or because of peer pressure.

“The scope of this problem is big,” Pasierb said.

Robin Abrams, vice president and chief legal counsel for Purdue Pharma Corp.,(manufacturer of Oxycontin) said the pharmaceutical industry is trying to address the problem. She said her company specifically is trying to develop safer drugs and has set up educational programs across the U.S. for law enforcement agencies, schools, community organizations, and parents and youth.

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Prescription drug abuse growing at an alarming rate in the U.S.

Death due to prescription drug abuse is in the headlines now because of the death of Michael Jackson. The media also harkens back to the death of Elvis Presley and other celebrities who have died from drug overdoses.

But the abuse of prescription drugs is different. Unlike the addiction to heroin and cocaine, which may be declining, abuse of prescription drugs is on the increase. Perhaps the most alarming fact is who is getting addicted.

Data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found that almost 3 million adolescents and about 7 million young adults from ages 18 to 25 had used prescription drugs for non-medical purposes at least once in their lives. That number has been steadily increasing. Abuse is most prominent for pain relievers.

Prescription drug abuse and prescription drug addiction are not new. . However, several factors have made it more widespread. While doctors ultimately have to sign off on three refills, doing so can become routine and thus the prescription drug abuse is facilitated. Doctors will often confirm the refill of a prescription with just a phone call.

via Prescription drug abuse growing at an alarming rate in the U.S..

Test for Oxycontin and Vicodin with Advanced Orapoint Oral Fuid Drug Screening Technology

Prescription Drug Abuse Handout

SCIPPrescriptionDrugAbuseHandout1-09.pdf (application/pdf Object).

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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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Drug Free Workplace Information

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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Drug Free Workplace Information

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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Drug Free Workplace Solutions

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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drug free workplace solutions