Hair Drug Testing in the News
Hair drug testing has been catching the news wires lately as it touches Celebrity rumours, family issues, and concern in the workplace and public service. Let us take a quick look of some interesting news articles that has hit the hair wires on drug testing.
Fire-fighters in Drug Trouble
In the Boston fire department, forty fire fighters who are suspected of drug abuse have been tested this year, resulting in three officers quitting. These tests followed the probe of a fire battle incident when two fire fighters were impaired following a fire call. Fire fighter readiness continues to be the most critical skill that they must possess.
Police policy on their personnel does not allow mandatory drug testing. However, drug testing can be ordered to a police or a fire fighter if he is under “reasonable suspicion.” With hair drug testing becoming a critical issue in contract negotiations between the government and labour unions in the police department, the new police contract requires that any person that fails a hair drug test is subject for random urinalysis for the remainder of his career.Hair drug testing is important to detect drug use in a wide time range. However, the police rely on urine drug tests to confirm their suspicions. For some, hair drug testing is used to give the authorities an idea which can even pass evidence in some courts. Hair drug testing has been a relevant method in catching the good public servant from the bad public servant.
Parents Differ Opinions on Drug Testing
With hair testing kits being developed to be more accessible to consumers, many parents are finding these drug tests useful in discovering what their teenagers are up to. Zeynep Ilgaz, president and CEO of Confirm BioSciences has stated that their HairConfirm kit detects drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, opiates, ecstasy, heroine, and codeine. Ilgaz said that they specifically developed HairConfirm because of the rising concern of parents on teenage drug use problem. This hair drug tests show quantitative and accurate results.
Most parents realize the usefulness of these hair drug tests. For one, parents can test for drug use without the knowledge of their children. All they need is a hair sample that can be taken from their children’s hair brush. This method prevents the confrontation that usually happens when a parent “passes a cup” to his children so that they can have urine drug tests. If the drug test comes out positive then parents agree that they can engage a conversation in an advantage since they have certainty of their children’s drug issue.
While this can breach trust issues, hair drug testing is seen as a new parenting tool as some parents pointed out. There is always an ethics involved in drug issues from the workplace and at home.
This Article is written by Lena Butler
