Pubdate: Thu, 31 Aug 2000
Source: Arizona Daily Star (AZ)
Copyright: 2000 Pulitzer Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.azstarnet.com/
Author: Robert Preidt

HAIR TEST NOW AVAILABLE FOR ECSTASY

U.S. Company Responds To Many Requests

An American company is the first in the world to introduce a hair sample
test for the presence of the popular party drug Ecstasy.

"This was a direct response to requests from our corporate clients, from
parents, from school principals and from the federal government," says Ray
Kubacki, president and CEO of Psychemedics Corp. in Cambridge, Mass.

Last month, Psychemedics started including testing for Ecstasy along with
other illegal drugs in hair samples it receives from more than 1,700
corporations with drug-free workplace programs.

Psychemedics clients include the largest corporation in the country, General
Motors, and the largest police force in the United States, New York City's.
But if you're a parent concerned about your teen-agers, a hair test
collection kit is available in drug stores for $59.95. Those samples have to
be sent to the Psychemedics lab to be tested, which is free.

Psychemedics also screens hair samples for marijuana, cocaine, opiates
(heroin), methamphetamine (speed and uppers), and PCP (angel dust).

The tests involve liquefying the hair samples without destroying any drugs
that might be present in the hair. The samples are subjected to two types of
tests to detect any illegal drugs.

"So anything positive that comes out of our lab has had two completely
different tests done on it," Kubacki says.

When a person ingests drugs, they get into the bloodstream, which nourishes
all our hair follicles, Kubacki says, so trace amounts of drugs are
deposited in the center of each hair, roughly in proportion to the amount of
drugs taken.

Hair testing has a number of advantages over urine testing, he adds. The
hair test can detect drugs used over a 90-day period, while urine tests
detect drugs taken only with the last two or three days.

"That superior detection rate provides a powerful deterrent," Kubacki says.

And, he adds, hair testing provides a better opportunity to retest if
someone challenges the results. With a urine test, it's impossible to get a
new sample to cover the same period of time. But it's easy to get another
sample of hair and check it for drug residue.

And while there are many ways to cheat on a urine test, the hair test is
impossible to outmaneuver.

"You can't bleach (the drug) out, you can't dye it out, any of that stuff,"
Kubacki says.

Such testing must be integrated into comprehensive employee assistance
programs, says the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence.

"So if an employee is behaving in a peculiar way that suggests drug use … if
his behavior is affecting his performance, particularly when it relates to
the safety of other people, then we have no objection to drug testing, as
long as it's followed by appropriate treatment for whatever problem is
discovered," says Jeffrey Hon, the group's public information director.

The group says that employee assistance programs that offer confidential
identification and referral services, along with employer-sponsored health
insurance coverage for alcoholism and drug treatment services, offer the
best approach for a safe and productive workplace.
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