Drug News You Can Use

Just Say No – 3 Companies Benefit From Drug Screening Programs

Turning away employees who don’t pass a drug test means fewer workplace injuries and a healthier work environment.

Companies that choose to implement pre-employment drug screening or adhere to a robust drug and safety initiative, such as programs sponsored by state Bureau of Workers’ Compensation offices, report fewer lost-time injuries and – less measurable – improved employee morale.

Lawn & Landscape spoke with three firms that implemented drug screening and/or criminal background checking to learn how these processes can change a workforce for the better.

Bomb Threats Called In To Avoid Urine Test

For two days in a row, an Anchorage man on probation for a drug charge called in bomb threats to his probation office to avoid a scheduled urine test, police say.

Officers arrested Bryant K. Brown, 44, Thursday for two counts of terroristic threatening after the Nov. 22 and 23 phone calls.

Designer Drugs Fry Brain Like Ecstasy

Some “designer drugs” may be in a legal gray area, but their actions on the brain are similar to those of illegal drugs and could be just as dangerous, new research suggests.

The researchers studied two popular designer drugs, mephedrone and methylone, analogs of cathinone, a drug found in the plant Catha edulis. The drugs entered the drug scene in the 2000s with innocuous names like “bath salts” or “plant food.” These drugs originally fell into a legal gray area because they weren’t specifically regulated on a federal level, but in October 2011 they were temporarily classified as illegal, schedule one drugs.

Report: Marijuana use up, alcohol use down among U.S. teens

Results from the latest teen survey from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) are a mixed bag. The survey showed fewer teens are turning to alcohol and cigarettes than ever before. But the “Monitoring the Future” survey also found that marijuana use is rising steadily among America’s teens.

The findings are based on a survey of 47,000 eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan on behalf of the NIDA. The researchers found one out of every 15 high school seniors smokes pot on a daily or near-daily basis. That’s the highest rate since 1981.

The percentage of teens saying they see “great risk” in using marijuana has dropped in recent years.

“One thing we’ve learned over the years is that when young people come to see a drug as dangerous, they’re less likely to use it,” said survey author Dr. Lloyd Johnston, a distinguished senior research scientist at the University of Michigan. “That helps to explain why marijuana right now is rising.”

It’s the fourth straight year marijuana use grew among teens compared with last decade when pot use declined among teens.

The survey found more than 36 percent of 12th-graders used marijuana in the past year, compared to nearly 32 percent in the 2007 survey. Almost 29 percent of 10th-graders and 12.5 percent of eighth-graders used marijuana in the past year, the survey showed.

Drug testing a given at CBC

More students at Christian Brothers College High School are saying no to drugs these days and the 161-year-old Town and Country school knows that for sure.

It’s celebrating five years of annual mandatory drug testing for all students.

Jane Eschmann is the school’s assistant principal and administrator of the program at the college prep school.

“In the five years we’ve done this, we’ve had a total of eight students who’ve had to withdraw from school, out of well over 5,000 tests given to students,” she said. “We think that’s a pretty phenomenal number.”

Prospective students and their families are told about the mandatory drug testing. There’s no refusal allowed by students or parents, and no one has ever refused, CBC President Mike England said.

Catholic Education Office officials said they’re not aware of any other Catholic high schools that have the same mandatory drug testing as CBC.

Kelli Hopkins, associate executive director/board services of the Missouri School Boards’ Association, said she’s unaware of any public school districts with mandatory drug testing of students.

This school year, 860 CBC students in grades 9 to 12 were given a hair test for drugs in the first semester. In the second semester, about 25 to 33 percent of students will be randomly selected to be tested again with the testing starting in January.

Testing is conducted by Psychemedics Inc., which provides testing for more than 2,600 organizations and 175 schools nationwide. The company has done CBC’s testing since the start and ensures accuracy of tests for marijuana, methamphetamines, cocaine, PCP, heroin, opiates, and ecstasy.

Using a small sample of hair, about 1.5 inches long, the test can identify whether use is light, moderate or heavy and can provide an approximation of when the drug was last used.

“The only drug we have seen this year is marijuana, and, of the nine positive tests this year, five were seniors and four were juniors with all freshmen and sophomores testing drug-free,” Eschmann said.

Last year, eight students tested positive. All but one student passed when re-tested. The student was asked to withdraw from school and left, England said.

Parents find testing reassuring

In his 23 years as president of CBC, England said the drug testing “has been one of the most positive things that’s ever happened to our school.”

“Our kids take pride that we’re the only school in the state, as far as we know, that does mandatory drug testing for the entire student body and that the numbers are what they are.”

Testing doesn’t end with the students. All faculty, staff and even clergy were tested the first year of the program. England was the first tested.

Faculty and staff now are tested upon hiring, and CBC reserves the right to test up to 10 percent of its 105 faculty and staff members each year, Eschmann said.

Parents find the program reassuring, while students take it in stride.

England’s son, Tom, is a senior.

“He tells me the test is absolutely no big deal,” England said. “When he passes, a letter comes home from Ms. Eschmann congratulating him on passing. As a parent, that’s a wonderful thing to get, a letter that tells you 100 percent that everything is OK.”

Shawn Eagan, of St. Charles, is president of the school’s Parent Club and father to Conor, who graduated CBC last year, and Kevin, a junior.

“I think this program is excellent because it gives our kids one more reason to stay away from drugs,” he said. “Let’s be frank, temptations are out there, and this gives kids another tool to fight against peer pressure.

“Even if kids make mistakes, they’re not automatically tossed out because we all want to get them back on track.”

99 percent clean

Eschmann said most of CBC’s results have come back clean.

Even in the 2007-2008 school year when testing was first done at CBC, 97.6 percent of students tested drug-free, she said. Afterward, the results were 98.7 percent for 2008-2009, 98.8 percent for 2009-2010 and 99.1 percent for 2010-2011.

“The testing was not started to be punitive or because we thought we had a problem,” Eschmann said.

However, other Christian Brothers schools across the country were doing such testing, she said.

“The reasons they’ve done it were like ours, because we care about our kids,” she said. “It gives students a reason to say no. Also, between ages 14 and 18, the brain is more susceptible to addiction, and testing takes that out of the equation during formative years of brain development.

“And we wanted parents to know they they’re sending their sons to a school where they won’t run into other kids using drugs who would take them in the wrong direction.”

Eschmann said hair testing, which has always been the methodology used, is harder to mask than a urine test.

“Drugs only stay in urine for a few days, but hair testing gives you a 90-day window of usage,” she said. “Also, a hair test is very noninvasive.” Hair is taken by a school nurse and sent to the company for processing, with the envelope with the hair sealed right in front of the student.

Parents and guardians are given the results of each test within two weeks of when the hair sample is taken.

Contacts for negative test results are made by mail and those for positive results in person. Students with positive results will meet with their parents and Eschmann, who makes recommendations for help. But it’s the responsibility of the parents to help their son change his behavior, she said.

After the initial positive test, the student will be expected to take another test after 100 days where a different result is expected for the student to continue at CBC.

Eschmann admits that even positive drug tests have allowed students and parents to open up lines of communication.

“I get letters from parents saying thank you for doing this, this may have saved my son’s life, because they had no idea drug use was going on,” she said.