Pubdate: Mon, 19 Feb 2007
Source: Charleston Daily Mail (WV)
Copyright: 2007 Charleston Daily Mail
Contact:  http://www.dailymail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/76
Author: Jake Stump

DRUG TESTING EFFECTIVENESS DEPENDS ON THE DRUGS

If lighting up a marijuana joint is in your  evening plans, you'd 
better hope you're not screened  for drugs within the next 30 days.

Cannabis can be detected in a person's urine up to a  month after 
usage, said Dr. Patrick Callery, chairman  of Basic Pharmaceutical 
Sciences at West Virginia  University. In hair samples, it can show 
up within 90  days.

But several harder drugs, such as cocaine and heroin,  tend to leave 
the body much sooner without a trace.  Those are usually detected in 
urine only two to five  days after abuse.

You may want to avoid drugs altogether if you're a  Kanawha County 
employee, coal miner or construction  worker.

Drug testing has emerged as a hot issue in state and  county 
governments this year, as advocates for  mandatory screenings say 
it's critical to have a  drug-free workforce serving the public.

Last month, Gov. Joe Manchin expressed interest in  requiring all 
agencies in the executive branch to  screen job applicants for drug 
use. And at the Capitol,  a few drug-testing-related bills have been 
introduced,  notably one that mandates screening for coal miners.

Locally, some county officials want employees in  safety-sensitive 
positions to be randomly tested for  drugs. The Kanawha County 
Commission's proposal was  introduced on Thursday.

But drug testing is nothing new, Callery said. In its  current form, 
it has been around for at least 25 years.

Urinalysis seems to be the oldest and most common first  step to 
detection, though blood, hair and saliva can  also be tested. This 
first step is usually known as the  screening test.

A urine sample goes through a series of chemical tests,  which can be 
done on-site instead of being shipped away  to a laboratory. This 
way, obtaining the results can be  cheap and fast - the screening can 
be completed in a  matter of minutes. Urine dipsticks are often used 
and display colors, which correlate to any detection of  drugs or 
their byproducts.

Lynn Wade is administrator for the Labor Education and  Development 
program, commonly known as LEAD, which has  become a commonplace 
drug-screening initiative within  the construction industry. Wade 
said a routine urine  sample is given at a local clinic or doctor's 
office under LEAD's guidelines.

But random testing is conducted on the job site, she  said. A trained 
official then seals and labels the  sample and prepares it for analysis.

A urine sample is actually split into two and placed  into primary 
and secondary specimen bottles, which are  both sent to the 
laboratory. Only the primary sample is  opened and screened while the 
second bottle remains  sealed and stored at a laboratory, Wade said.

Workers who ultimately test positive for a drug that  violates LEAD 
policy have 60 days to request that the  split specimen be sent to 
another certified laboratory  for analysis.

The LEAD drug-testing program is voluntary, but it has  become so 
prevalent that if workers refuse a screening  or don't carry 
LEAD-issued certification cards, they're  unlikely to get work at 
most job sites.

Cocaine, marijuana, amphetamines and opioids (morphine,  heroin) are 
the most common drugs tested for in the  workplace.

A person testing positive in the initial screening,  however, may not 
have actually abused an illegal drug.

"Certain food substances can give false positives,"  said Callery, 
who's also assistant dean of research and  graduate programs in his 
department at WVU.

"Poppy seeds come from the same family as morphine."

Eating foods that contain poppy seeds can result in a  false positive 
for opiods in a drug test. Morphine and  codeine come from the same plant.

This was made into a quirky Seinfeld episode plot in  which the 
character Elaine tested positive for opiods  in screenings mandated 
by her workplace. It turned out  that her obsession with poppy-seed 
muffins resulted in  the false positives.

Callery said he's actually heard of court cases  involving defendants 
using the "Poppy Seed Defense" to  try to cover up heroin or morphine 
abuse. That argument  worked in the past, but today's tests are 
advanced  enough to determine whether a positive result is solely 
from a poppy-seed food product.

That's why a positive sample goes on to a second, more  detailed and 
complex test, usually called the  confirmation test.

This final step involves the use of a device called a  mass 
spectrometer, which measures ions and fully  confirms any drug usage, 
Callery said. These samples  are usually sent away to off-site 
laboratories for  forensic chemists to test.

One popular method combines gas chromatography with  mass 
spectrometry, both scientific practices foreign to  the common 
person. In essence, these tests are the  judge and jury in drug detection.

"In the Olympics, when an athlete loses a medal because  of drugs, 
it's usually because of GC/MS (gas  chromatography/mass 
spectrometry)," Callery said. "It's  the standard for analysis.

"Forensic chemists like to have at least two  confirmatory methods 
that identify the structure of an  abused substance. One of them is 
almost always GC/MS."

Another method is called liquid chromatography.

"They both weigh molecules," Callery explained about  the methods. 
"Each molecule has a characteristic  molecular weight. The molecules 
represent the drugs or  substances."

Chemists are able to look for other indicators of drug  use not 
normally seen in the initial screening test, he  said.

The body converts drugs into other substances that form  metabolites, 
or byproducts. One of the easier drugs to  detect is marijuana, 
Callery said, because chemists can  identify both THC, the main 
substance found in a  cannabis plant, and a certain metabolite that's 
broken  down from an early form of marijuana.

While the existing testing methods have worked  efficiently for 
several years, Callery believes new  methods may need developed 
because of the rising  prevalence of designer drugs.

Screeners have altered their tests over the years to  reflect drug 
trends, Callery said.

"Some may be doing OxyContin," he said. "They'll screen  for the 
drugs making the news."

Callery and his department are currently experimenting  with new 
methods that test for the drug fentanyl, an  opioid abused widely in 
West Virginia.

The drug is available in a patch and is prescribed in  various forms 
as a powerful pain reliever. It has the  potency of about 80 times 
that of morphine.

"It's being diverted from its normal use and people are  overdosing 
on it," Callery said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman