Health Guidance

The Department Of Transportation (DOT) has issued new rules for drug and alcohol testing, for all the transportation employers and safety-sensitive transportation employees. This new regulation was designed to prevent accidents and property damage that are caused by the misuse of drug and alcohol by the drivers. DOT has provided certain rules on how to conduct these tests, what is the process of testing and who to conduct these tests. These rules cover the employees of State and Local government who are required to have a Commercial driving License (CDL).

Education and Training of Drug Testing

Every company has to provide the educational materials for their drivers, which explains the requirements and policies for testing drug and alcohol ingestion regulations. According to the Sec.382.601 (b), the educational materials should include the following discussions.

· Personal identity of the drivers designated by the employer to answer the questions regarding the material.

· Requirements of the drivers, subject to the misuse of alcohol and controlled substance requirements.

· Explanation of safety-sensitive function to understand the period of workday that is required for the drivers to be in compliance.

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Presence of Tricyclic Antidepressant (TCA) in more quantity provokes individuals to commit suicide. TCA has much impact on normal person than a depressed individual. TCA causes sleepiness, difficulty in concentration and thinking and unsteady gait in body. The Tricyclic drug test helps to find out the TCA levels in the system i.e. to fish out people who have suicidal tendency.

For whom this test is useful?
Trycyclic drug test is helpful in various situations and places in identifying the victims of the Tricyclic Antidepressant drug and helping them before anything miserable happens.

Employers:
You can make tricyclic drug test as a part of your recruitment process, which will help you in identifying candidates with high TCA levels. This test can be administered on the existing employees also to find out individuals with suicidal tendencies in your organization.

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According to the study of “Teen drug use and attitudes”, it confirms that Generation Rx has arrived, as an alarming number of today’s teenagers are more likely to have abused Rx and OTC medications than a variety of illegal drugs like Ecstasy, Cocaine, Crack and Meth.

There is dramatic increase in the teenagers who are abusing prescribed drugs. This is Drug Misuse. Drug misuse means, use of any drug (legal or illegal) for a medical or recreational purpose when other alternatives are available, practical or warranted, or when drug use endangers either the user or others with whom he or she may interact.

Nearly one in five teens (19 percent or 4.5 million) report abusing prescription medications to get high and one in 10 (10 percent or 2.4 million) report abusing cough medicine to get high.

Based on the Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) survey:

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A home drug test is a scientific piece of equipment that allows you to conduct an experiment at home that tells you whether the person from whom the sample is taken has been taking drugs or not. While home drug testing is becoming extremely popular among parents of teens, the drug testing kits are also being used in schools, offices and small businesses.

These home tests can be used to detect harmful drugs like THC (called marijuana, weed, pot or hash), opiates (heroin, morphine or codeine), cocaine (crack or snow), MDMA (ecstasy or X), Amphetamines (speed or uppers) and Benzodiazepines (Valium or Xanax).

A home drug test has various advantages over a test that is done in the laboratory. The top 5 advantages of testing drugs at home are listed below:

1. Faster results – This test can be done within minutes. You do not have to collect the sample, deliver it to the laboratory and then wait patiently for the results to come in. With a drug test kit, you can take a sample and use a disposable drug test to know the answer to the question that has been plaguing you for some time. Continue reading ‘5 Advantages to Home Drug Testing’ »

Benzodiazepines are a type of anti-anxiety drugs. While anxiety is a normal response to stressful situations, some people have unusually high levels of anxiety that can interfere with everyday life. For these people, benzodiazepines can help bring their feelings under control. Benzodiazepines act on the central nervous system, produce sedation and muscle relaxation, and lower anxiety levels. Benzodiazepines are commonly abused. Benzodiazepines abuse is partially related to the toxic effects that they produce and also to their widespread availability. Death and serious illness rarely result from benzodiazepine abuse alone. However, they are frequently taken with either alcohol or other medications. The combination of benzodiazepines and alcohol can be dangerous.

Causes and Symptoms of Benzodiazepine

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There is a wide range of drugs that are abused by the people for non-therapeutic effects and there are different testing kits that are used to detect the presence of these drugs. The drug addictive effectiveness differs from the drug ingested from person to person.

Common Drugs That Are Detected Through Drug Testing

The following are some of the common drugs that are abused by the individuals, which can be detected with different testing devices.

· Amphetamines (AMP): This is a schedule II forbidden drug used according to the prescription, which is also accessible in the illicit market. These drugs are the stimulants that affect the brain and body rapidly. These are psychologically addictive and if the addicted person stops using them will face various problems like, assault, anger and anxiety. Usually this drug effects for 24 hours and will exist in the body for 2 to 6 days.

· Barbiturates (BAR): These drugs are central nervous system depressants that are used to heal the tranquilizers, mesmerizing and anticonvulsants. Its effects are similar to that of alcohol intoxication effects. The detection period of Barbiturates is about 3-8 days. Continuous abuse of barbiturate can lead to clinically considerable level of tolerance and physical dependence.

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Drug abuse, involves the excessive and repeated use of a substance to escape reality to produce pleasure despite its destructive effects. The substances abused can be illegal drugs such as opium, cocaine, marijuana and their derivatives or legal substances used improperly, such as prescription drugs and inhalants like nail polish or gasoline.

Drug abuse by employees cause many expensive problems for businesses ranging from absenteeism, lost productivity, accidents, and an increase in the health insurance claims.

A survey by the federal government showed full-time employees who admitted to being current illicit drug users tend to be: between the ages of 18 and 25, less educated, male, divorced or never married, white and low paid employees. The industries with highest rates of illicit drug use are food preparation workers, waiters, waitresses, and bartenders, construction workers and the workers in transportation and material moving.

The loss to companies in the United States due to alcohol and drug-related abuse by employees’ totals $100 billion a year, according to the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information. There are many impacts due to drug in workplace.

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Phencyclidine (phenylcyclohexylpiperidine) commonly initialized as PCP is a disseminative drug, which means that by consuming this drug mind feels separated from the body. PCP was illegally manufactured in labs and sold out in form of tablets from 1950s. According to survey conducted by National Drug Control, more than 187 million children age 12 and older have abused PCP at least once in their past life. PCP abuse causes many negative psychological effects and due to these effects, it was never approved for human use.

Effects of PCP drug abuse
Due to the overdose of PCP, the drug abusers have unpleasant psychological effects. Their behavior will be unpredictable and often violent behavior is associated. Sometimes the abusers can even commit suicide. Under the influence of PCP, the following are the effects on health of drug abuser.

Effects on Brain: The abuse of PCP distorts perceptions of sight, sound and produces feelings of detachment from the environment and from them-selves also. These effects are caused by disruption of the interaction between nerve cells and neurotransmitter serotonin. This is distributed throughout the perceptual and regulatory system, results in changes in mood, increases the hunger and body temperature etc.

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