May, 2016
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Can you cheat on drug and alcohol tests and get away with it?
Can you cheat on drug and alcohol tests and get away with it?
Part one: How alcohol testing works.
The short answer to that often asked question; “Can you cheat on drug and alcohol tests and get away with it?” is probably not. And it’s especially hard to do it if at all with DOT drug screening or alcohol testing here’s why.
The DOT mandated testing methods that are hard to beat and made it even harder over the years.
Most dot alcohol tests are breath alcohol testing using evidential breath testing equipment. Testing with non evidential breath testing devices and saliva alcohol testing are also allowed by the regulations much less used because they are only allowed for initial screening but not for confirmation testing if an initial screen is a positive requiring a confirmation test.
There are also time requirements so even if you tested using screening devices you’ll still need to have evidential breath testing equipment nearby in order to stay in compliance if a positive initial screen need a confirmation test now.
In general there are many reliable ways that I know of to be any type of alcohol testing. They all look for the presence of alcohol in your system and measure it as a blood/alcohol concentration (BAC) in your blood.
- Saliva alcohol testing looks at alcohol present in the saliva
- Breath alcohol tests convert breath from your deep lungs where alcohol is releasing into your lungs where the blood and the air you breath come together. That alcohol is converted into energy and that is used to measure the blood/alcohol concentration (BAC) level.
In summary while there are some ways to cheat a drug screen there aren't any ways to cheat an alcohol test that I can think of unless you can substitute someone else’s saliva or breath and not have the alcohol testing tech not notice. Not likely. Alcohol testing techs are required to have very specific DOT approved certified alcohol tech training to follow a strict protocol for conducting tests so I wouldn't count on any gaming the tech strategies unless they were in on it too-again this being real live that’s not likely to happen either.
Service Agents Series: Your Required Medical Review Officer or “MRO”
Your Required Medical Review Officer or “MRO”
This is the third installment in a series about the roles of DOT Service Agents (SAs) the people who help you implement your drug free workplace program.
After an employee participates in a DOT urine drug screen the specimen is sent by the urine collector to and processed by a DOT approved laboratory.
That process generates an initial result that is electronically sent to and reviewed by an Medical Doctors acting in the DOT Service Agent role of Medical Review Officer or “MRO”.
The urine collector also is required to send or electronically transmit the Medical Review Officer copy of the DOT urine collection Control and Custody Form of “CCF” to the MRO.
The MRO’s job is to review the initial result of a drug screen and determine several things:
- Is the result properly documented?
- Have they (the MRO’s office) received their copy (physical or electronic) of the drug screen form yet?
- Does the (the MRO) require additional information to determine the final result of a drug screen and report it.
- Is the test a positive drug screen result requiring an interview with the urine donor (employee that got tested)?
- Make contact with the donor (employee that got tested) when required and contact the employer when required.
- Make the final determination of the result
- Report the result of the drug screen to the donor’s employer either directly or through their (the donor’s employer) service agent authorized to do so.
- Determining and reporting negative DOT drug screen results
Most of the time results are negative and don't require any further action on the part of the MRO’s office so they report them out usually within 24 of receiving the initial results. Most MRO’s offer multiple options for getting a result including secure fax, email, and secure web portal access.
Determining and reporting positive DOT drug screen results
In the event of a positive result depending on how long it takes the MRO to get in touch with a donor (if the MRO needs to speak to them) before determining and reporting a result. Sometimes positive results can take a day or two longer to report.
The DOT requires results be processed and reported in a timely way so generally results are available between 24 to 48 hours after the lab receives the urine sample.
Delays in reporting results
MROs aren't allowed to report a DOT urine drug screen result until they have their copy and are able to determine it was filled out properly.
In some cases when the collection site does not send the MRO copy of the testing form to the MRO, results can end up being delayed until they receive it.
Mydrugtestingprogram.com sets all our clients up with an MRO that offers 24/7 online access to results and records through a secured system as well as 24/7 toll free live customer service.
Service Agent Series 2: Your DOT approved and certified lab
Your DOT approved and certified lab
The DOT regulations require that motor carriers required to have a drug free workplace program work with a laboratory certified by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMSHA).
How do you get set up with an approved lab?
Most motor carriers work with a Third Party Administrators TPA who handles getting you set up with an certified clinical lab and a Medical Review Officer (MRO) (we cover MROs in another blog post).
The lab then has special DOT drug testing collection forms called “control and custody” (CCF) forms customized for you and printed and then sent to you. These are the forms that your driver takes with whenever having any required drug testing done. The collection site staff fills the form out and packages it up with special DOT approved specimen collection kits that are then shipped to the lab for processing.
What the laboratory does:
The Laboratory receives the packaged up urine specimen and the lab copy of the Control and Custody Form filled out during the collection. The Lab follows strict federal guidelines for processing the specimen and testing it for controlled substances.
What drugs does the lab test for and how
For DOT testing the lab runs what’s called a NIDA 5 panel drug screen that tests for the presence of the drug itself or the metabolites that the body produces when the drug is in it’s system.
Here are the five classes of drugs that are tested for:
- Marijuana
- Cocaine
- Opiates – opium and codeine derivatives
- Amphetamines and methamphetamines
- Phencyclidine – PCP
When the lab is finished they transmit preliminary results to the Medical Review Officer (MRO) who then reports the final results to the driver’s employer and/or TPA depending on how they’re set up.
Under the DOT regulations labs are required to store (for a period of time) the second untested half of the urine specimen for retesting if an employee wished to contest a result. In those cases, after the notification of the request to retest, the lab will then send the remaining specimen to another certified lab for additional testing.
Generally you will have no direct contact or interaction with the lab pertaining to your account or test results. Mydrugtestingprogram.com handles getting our clients set up with a certified clinical lab and forms and MRO.
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