A California man who spent nearly six years in prison for a 1980s marijuana-trafficking conviction was sentenced to six months in federal prison for running a company that sold a male prosthetic called the Whizzinator that helped men cheat on drug tests. This prosthetic device was used for passing an ‘observed’ DOT drug screen.
Gerald W. Wills, 67, of Los Angeles, sold the device, along with a synthetic urine.
He and his partner pleaded guilty in 2008 to conspiracy to sell drug paraphernalia and conspiracy to defraud the United States, because the products were specifically marketed to beat federal drug tests.
“I fully understand I was a … Continue Reading

Personally, I find it hard to believe, but it’s unfortunately true. Fake urine is causing problems with drug testing, particularly in the construction industry.

Just last week The Oregonian published an article called on this topic. (You can read the entire article here http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2010/06/finding_fake_urine_a_real_chal.html).

The point of the article was that lots of people are using synthetic urine, bought online or in smoke shops. They most often contain the fake specimen somewhere on their body to sneak it in at body temperature, and surreptitiously fill the specimen cup. “But we have witnessed collections!” you say? See the related article on The Whizzinator prosthetic.

So … Continue Reading

Acording to the Subtance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration:

 77% of illegal drug users are employed. Are you employing them? If so, what does this mean for you?

• Employees who use illegal drugs cost their employers about twice as much in medical claims as non-users.
• Employees who use illegal drugs are 3.6 times more likelty to be involved in a workplace accident, and 5 time more likely to file a worker’s comp claim.
• Employees who use illegal drugs are 2.2 times more likely to request early dismissal or time off, 2.5 times more likely to have absences of eight days or more, and … Continue Reading
  

Your Applicant’s Drug Screen Results are in… Now What Do You Do?

If you are an employer and have a drug screening program, you will eventually get a non-negative drug screen result. What will you do?

Let’s look at some possible non-negative results, so that you can plan ahead on how to handle them.

Positive – Illegal Drug or Prescription Drug – Many employers will initially handle an illegal or legal positive result in exactly the same way. Often the result is sent through the Medical Review process. If this is the case, a Medical Review Officer (MRO) will contact the applicant, … Continue Reading

First, let me be clear that  there are two kinds of oral fluids drug screening: instant, and lab-analyzed. This post is about the lab-analyzed oral fluids drug testing.  If you are an employer who is not drug screening, or is using urine or hair follicle testing, you may want to find out if Oral Fluids is an option, or an addition to your program. Why?

1) It is a brilliant solution for Post-Accident/Probable Cause and Random testing. Oral Fluids testing produces similar results to blood testing. Results will tell you what is in the system right now. It does not take time to … Continue Reading

There are two things I can think of that would help you in preventing dilute specimen drug screen results:

1) Give the applicant instructions. Before you send them off to the lab, provide them with specific written instructions, such as: Please refrain from drinking large quantities of liquid, including water before your test. You could even warn them that a dilute result may be considered a fail. 

At Occuscreen we make a form for our clients that request it that includes the instructions, directions to the collection site, what they should take with them, etc. This can be helpful in preventing all … Continue Reading

At some point, if you are drug screening your applicants or employees, you are likely to come across a Dilute-Positive or Dilute-Negative drug screen.  The first time is usually a surprise and you won’t know how to handle it. Let me suggest that you prepare in advance.

So what is a dilute result? If you are doing urine drug screening, a dilute result means there was too much water in the urine to confirm the result. Why was there too much water? Well, it could be a number of reasons. The applicant drank a lot of water because they are very … Continue Reading

There are 3 common ways to test for drugs used in employment screening, all with their own benefits and drawbacks.

1) Urine Drug Screening: Probably the most common, urine is a simple, effective and inexpensive way to test for the use of legal and illegal drugs. The applicant is generally sent to a clinic or lab collection site to leave the specimen, and results are generally available the next day. Positive results go through confirmation and take an additional day or two. The detection window is generally about 24-72 hours, depending on the drug. Marijuana can sometimes last much longer.

2) Oral … Continue Reading

I asked our customer service reps for their favorite excuses (these are real!) for failing a drug test. Here are some of their favorites:
#5) “My mom gave me Chinese Herbal Medicine.”
#4) “I was on vacation on Amsterdam.”
#3) “The house next door to me used to be a meth lab.”
#2) “My kidneys are not filtering properly.”
and my personal favorite…
#1) “I had an “everything” bagel yesterday.”