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Tag: drug testing

  • Inside Racial Disparities In Opioid Prescribing, Drug Testing

    Inside Racial Disparities In Opioid Prescribing, Drug Testing

    Black patients who tested positive for marijuana were twice as likely to have their pain pills discontinued than their white counterparts.

    Black patients who are prescribed opioids for chronic pain are more likely to be tested for illicit drug use than their white counterparts.

    Black patients are also more likely to have their pain medication discontinued if they test positive for other substances, including marijuana, according to new research. 

    The research, conducted at Yale, analyzed the health records of 15,000 patients Veterans Administration between 2000 and 2010. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends testing patients who get opioids for illicit drug use, but the researchers found that doctors rarely enforce the policy.

    However, when the drug-testing policy was enforced it was more likely to be applied to black patients. 

    In addition, black patients were more likely to have their opioid prescriptions discontinued if they tested positive for marijuana or cocaine. Ninety percent of people who tested positive for illicit substances kept their opioid prescriptions, but blacks were twice as likely to have their pain pills taken away. 

    “If they were black and tested positive for marijuana, they were twice as likely to have opioids discontinued, and for cocaine, they were three times more likely,” Julie Gaither, lead study author, told Science Daily. 

    Gaither blames this on lack of consistent policy and engrained biases. 

    “There is no mandate to immediately stop a patient from taking prescription opioids if they test positive for illicit drugs,” Gaither said. “It’s our feeling that without clear guidance, physicians are falling back on ingrained stereotypes, including racial stereotyping. When faced with evidence of illicit drug use, clinicians are more likely to discontinue opioids when a patient is black, even though research has shown that whites are the group at highest risk for overdose and death.”

    Having an established protocol for what to do when a patient tests positive for illicit substance could help address biases, Gaither said. 

    “This study underscores the urgent need for a more universal approach to monitoring patients prescribed opioids for the concurrent use of sedatives and other substances that may increase the risk of overdose,” she said. 

    However, even with a policy in place, minorities may still face discrimination when it comes to drug testing, something many black Americans experience regularly.

    In July, tennis great Serena Williams tweeted her frustration at being tested for drugs more than twice as often as her competitors. 

    “It’s that time of the day to get ‘randomly’ drug tested and only test Serena. Out of all the players it’s been proven I’m the one getting tested the most. Discrimination? I think so,” she wrote. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Employment Rights For Legal Marijuana Users Addressed In New Bill

    Employment Rights For Legal Marijuana Users Addressed In New Bill

    Under the proposed legislation, federal employees living in pot-friendly states won’t be penalized for their cannabis use.

    New legislation proposed in the House of Representatives would protect federal employees from getting fired for using cannabis.

    The bipartisan bill—the Fairness in Federal Drug Testing Under State Laws Act—was introduced by Rep. Charlie Crist and Rep. Drew Ferguson last Thursday (July 26) and referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, according to Marijuana Moment.

    The legislation would shield federal employees “whose residence is in a State where that individual’s private use of marijuana is not prohibited” from being denied employment or being “subject to any other adverse personnel action” as a result of a positive cannabis test, according to the bill’s text, obtained by Marijuana Moment.

    The bill applies to employees of the federal government “across departments and agencies,” but not those involving “top secret clearance or access to a highly sensitive program.”

    However, if there is “probable cause to believe that the individual is under the influence of marijuana” in the workplace, they may be terminated.

    Tom Angell of Marijuana Moment notes that Rep. Crist previously proposed a measure to protect military veterans from being fired for cannabis use that is legal under state law.

    However, the measure became one of nearly three dozen amendments having to do with cannabis policy that Republican leadership in the House has blocked from being voted on, as Angell reported in early July.

    As more states approve cannabis for either medical or adult use, the rules around it when it comes to things like jobs or housing can get hazy.   

    NORML—the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws—provides a Model Workplace Policy for Cannabis on its website to help employers navigate this new territory. This guide gives a comprehensive background of cannabis and its effects.

    The difficult thing about enforcing DUI laws or anti-drug policies in the workplace with cannabis is the fact that its compounds may remain in a person’s system for days or even weeks after its use.

    As a result, a positive test result from a standard urinalysis test would not “provide an employer with any indication as to whether the substance may have been ingested while their employee was on the job,” the guide explains.

    This complicates an employer’s ability to determine whether an employee has violated policy by using on the job.

    There has yet to be a standard test for cannabis impairment, which presents a challenge for law enforcement as well. 

    As NPR reported last summer, “Despite the increasingly legal use of cannabis in many states, cops still don’t have the equivalent of a reliable alcohol breathalyzer or blood test—a chemically based way of estimating what the drug is doing in the brain.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Oklahoma Public Schools Increase Drug Testing For Students

    Oklahoma Public Schools Increase Drug Testing For Students

    The decision comes on the heels of the state’s voters passing a measure to legalize medical marijuana.

    A public school district in Oklahoma will double the number of students that will be required to undergo random drug testing in the coming school year.

    The move comes on the heels of a recent decision by state voters to pass a measure that allows for legal use of medical marijuana without a qualifying condition, but Bret Towne, superintendent for Edmond Public Schools, said that the increase was “coincidental” with the bill’s passage.

    According to coverage by High Times, more than 700 of the 3,000 students in the district who participate in extracurricular activities will be randomly tested for drugs this year.

    Random drug testing for students in Edmond Public Schools, which has been conducted largely among students in extracurricular activities for the past six years, was reduced two years ago after funding for the district was subjected to cuts. But at a meeting on July 2, the Edmond school board voted to return to previous testing levels, which is the number of students they are legally allowed to test.

    According to Towne, the board’s decision was not directly influenced by the passage of SQ 788, which allows patients to use marijuana for medical purposes after obtaining a recommendation from a qualified physician.

    Unlike most medical marijuana measures, SQ 788 requires no pre-existing health conditions to qualify for the medical marijuana program, and according to Towne, that element was cause for alarm among some parents. 

    “My concern is how it’s going to affect students on campus and the availability [of medical marijuana],” he told Oklahoma’s KFOR News. “We always worry about students having easier access to it.”

    But while the decision to increase the number of tests was a simple matter of voting, deciding how the school district will handle the issue on a broad scale will require more debate.

    As High Times noted, SQ 788 allows anyone 18 years or older to use the drug with a doctor’s recommendation, and grants permission to minors aged 16 to 17 to use medical cannabis as long as they have recommendations from two doctors.

    According to Towne, he’ll wait to see how the Oklahoma Department of Health will rule in regard to medical marijuana use on campuses, and then meet with state school board officials to consider revisions to their current policy. Currently, prescription medication are held and distributed to students by a school secretary. 

    But as Towne said, applying that policy to medical marijuana is “a little bit different situation [sic].”

    View the original article at thefix.com