Tuesday, April 7, 1987/The Battalion/Page 3
State and Local
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'rug-testing industry still improving,
pharmacologist tells group at A&M
By Amy Couvillon
Staff' Writer
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:s a limitedbB Dn H. R. Adams, chief of general
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■sting techniques and make results
more reliable.
■ Adams, Class of ’62, discussed the
ichnical aspects and limitations of
■
drug testing in a Texas A&M MSC
Great Issues program.
Laboratories like Scott & White do
drug screening and testing for orga
nizations like athletic teams, business
See related story, page 4
firms and governments, he said.
Although modern drug tests are
much more sensitive and efficient
than those of the early 20th century,
Adams said, the idea of detecting il
legal substances is ageless.
“Ever since Adam took a bite out
of the forbidden apple, people have
indulged in forbidden fruit,” Adams
said. “And that’s what toxicology is
all about — to see who has been in
dulging in the forbidden fruit.”
But determining whether some
one has taken an illegal drug is not
just a matter of one test. A urine
sample sent to a testing laboratory
goes through a number of steps.
Because the highly specific tests
are expensive and complicated, Ad
ams said, less specific screening tech
niques are used first.
Drug screening does not isolate
specific compounds in a urine sam
ple, but can only detect classes of
drugs, such as amphetamines, barbi
turates, minor tranquilizers, tetrahy-
Lawyer: Businesses shouldn’t test
orkers for drugs until courts rule
By Robert Morris
Staff Writer
lUntil the courts begin handing
■wn concrete decisions, businesses
■mild not implement drug testing
! foi employees, attorney Dawn Fin-
la; son said Monday afternoon in
Riidder Tower.
■Finlayson, a former assistant at-
itbiney general in Texas, lectured on
■e legal aspects of private-industry
|dnig testing as part of an MSC Great
Issues series.
■She said the next move in the
di ig-testing battle is up to the
inurts, rather than the legislature or
federal government. In the mean-
Hie, there are several legal prob-
fleut' with the testing procedure it
self, she said.
■“There could be claims of false
ilprisonmenl because an employee
is forced into a room to take the
test,” she said. “Intentional infliction
of emotional distress is another big
issue.”
She said malicious prosecution is
also a problem.
“At this point we advise our em
ployers to not turn in employees to
the district attorney’s office,” she
said. “We advise employers to not
take a step past discharge because it
is very dangerous.”
Defamation is one of the most
clear-cut problems in drug testing,
she said.
“Even though an employer may
have a positive drug test (on an em
ployee), he’s got to go to court to
prove it in a defamation suit,” Fin-
layson said.
Invasion of privacy is the big bat
tleground of the future, she said.
And the problems with the legal
ity of drug testing reach even fur
ther in Texas.
The Texas constitution contains a
Bill of Rights that mirrors the U.S.
Constitution, she said, but the courts
have not limited its application to the
government.
“So the private employers must
accord the due process protection of
the Texas constitution in the state of
Texas,” she said.
Last week, the Supreme Court
agreed to hear a case involving a
drug-related firing. That, along with
a current case in Austin involving
the Texas Bill of Rights situation,
will have a great effect on the man
ner in which drug testing is adminis
tered.
“The tort cases, as they come
down, are going to give us an idea of
just what is happening in the drug
testing area,” Findlayson said.
“My advice to (employers) right
now is to hold off if possible. You
don’t be the test case; you don’t be
the one that gets sued by the ACLU
(American Civil Liberties Union).”
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drocannabinol (THC) and opiates.
Adams listed the most often used
drug-screening techniques: Enzyme-
Mediated Immunogenous Tech
nique (EMIT), which makes use of
the body’s natural enzymes to detect
classes of foreign substances; Abu-
screen, which uses a radioactive la
bel; and Toxi-lab, a kit-type test that
uses thin-layer chromatography.
One problem, Adams said, is that
some or the screening methods will
result in a “positive” for a person us
ing a legal drug, such as a cold rem
edy. So before the positive results
are released to the organization that
requested them, they must be con
firmed with a more specific (and of
ten more expensive) test.
Gas Chromatography Mass Spec
trometry (GSMS) is a highly specific
confirmation method that will stand
up in court, he said.
“If used correctly, it’s almost 100
percent reliable in getting a true pos
itive,” he said.
Adams said his laboratory gets a
lot of calls about marijuana. THC, a
chemical in marijuana, is one of the
most common substances detected.
“People call me all the time,” Ad
ams said, “and they say, ‘Doctor, I
was at a party last night, and I didn’t
partake, but everyone else did. Will
it show up positive?’ ”
This is unlikely, said Adams, who
was skeptical about the effects of
passive inhalation.
“If you put six or eight people in a
closet,” he said, “and they’re all
smoking like crazy except for one,
then maybe you can get a positive on
someone who wasn’t smoking.”
But even if that person did test
positive, Adams said, the level of
THC found in the urine would be
much lower than usual. And labo
ratories can raise the limit on the
amount of THC that constitues a
positive result so that inhalation
won’t be a factor.
U.S. congressman:
drug testing helps
work environment
By Melanie Perkins
Staff Writer
The purpose of drug testing is
not to make criminals out of peo
ple or to kick them out of their
jobs, but to help create a drug-
free environment in the work
place, U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-
Ennis, said Monday.
As part of a series of programs
on drug testing sponsored by
MSC Great Issues, Barton spoke
to a gathering of about two dozen
people in Rudder Tower on the
role of the government in drug
testing.
Drug testing got its start at the
federal level, Barton said, be
cause the federal government is
the largest employer and is trying
to set a good example.
“I happen — as one member of
the United States Congress — to
feel the government does have a
role to play in order to protect
public health and public safety,”
he said.
In the United States today, he
said, there are about 50,000 con
tinual users of heroin and 4 to 5
million users of cocaine. Barton
added that one out of every 20
Americans uses marijuana.
That is costing the American
economic system somewhere in
the neighborhood of $60 billion a
year in lost efficiency, wages and
productivity. Barton said.
Some believe drug testing is an
infringement on the Fourth
Amendment right of unreason
able search and seizure and that it
is an invasion of privacy, Barton
said. There are several suits in the
federal court system on this issue
right now, he said.
Barton pointed out the recent
Amtrak train accident as an ex
ample of what federal drug test
ing could help prevent. After the
incident, officials discovered that
both the engineer and brakeman
had used marijuana.
On Sept. 15, 1986, President
Ronald Reagan issued an exec
utive order requiring mandatory
drug testing of all government
employees in sensitive positions,
all government employees hand
ling classified information, and
all cabinet secretaries and presi
dential appointments.
The order can be widely inter
preted, Barton said, and could af
fect 1.1 million of the 2.7 million
federal employees.
In the private sector, 25 to 50
percent of the Fortune 500 com
panies require some sort of drug
test, he said, mostly in the areas
involving public safety, law en
forcement or security.
He said the federal drug test
ing program has two parts — one,
a screening level that is 95 to 98
percent accurate, and two, a con
firmation test that is 100 percent
accurate. The confirmation test is
only administered if the screen
ing test proves positive.
The tests are paid for by tax
payers, with the cost ranging
from $10 to $100 per individual,
depending on how extensive the
tests are, Barton said.
“T he sense in Congress today
at the federal level is that it (drug
use) is a real problem,” Barton
said, “and I think the majority of
the Congress agrees in some fash
ion with what I believe — that it is
not an invasion of privacy.”
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