IDS Press Release

St. Louis Company Makes Drug Users Sweat
Recent shocking study on drug activity in the workplace has employers seeking alternative solutions to protect employees and clients.

In 2006, The National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that 10.6 percent of full-time employees aged 18-64 were classified as having a substance abuse disorder. This implies that approximately 20 million employees in America demonstrate potentially high-risk behaviors that pose dangerous health, safety and security concerns.

Finding cost-effective, non-invasive and reliable surveillance methods is the mission of Integrity Detection Systems (IDS), a high-tech company based in St. Louis. IDS offers revolutionary drug detection services as well as training for companies interested in implementing stronger anti-drug programs.

IDS utilizes biosensor technology with PreScreen and DrugWipe. These testing devices detect invisible drug residue present in the sweat of drug users and traffickers who have been in contact with illegal substances. The self-contained labs are a mere five-inches long, provide results in less than 5 minutes and simultaneously detect the presence of cannabis, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines and derivatives such as Meth or Ecstasy.

PreScreen analyzes samples taken directly from a person’s skin, while DrugWipe tests surfaces of equipment people come into contact with. Results from both tests are legally defensible and have been found to be 100 percent reliable in research conducted by the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
“There are just too many ways for drug users and traffickers to evade detection using traditional screening methods,” says Bill Rau, CEO of IDS. “Companies need to protect their integrity without offending employees or making awkward accusations. We offer discreet, economical and reliable methods of internally monitoring illegal drug activity.”

IDS offers proactive solutions to organizations, specifically schools and businesses, that want to realistically confront drug activity. Blackwell Professional Support Services (BPSS), Inc., the award-winning security personnel provider, is an example of a company that has hired IDS to train three staff members to administer pre-employment, random, post-incident and for-cause testing on security personnel using PreScreen.

Wade Blackwell, president of BPSS, hopes to reinforce the company’s zero-tolerance policy for drugs in the workplace and raise awareness of the cutting-edge technology available to businesses. BPSS will also offer clients the ability to request on-site testing. In this situation, a technician from IDS will be deployed as an independent third party to screen BPSS personnel and provide results directly to clients.

“I predict only success from the services IDS will provide,” says Blackwell. “Identifying the presence of drug use or trafficking supports our commitment to providing 100 percent drug-free workplaces which, in turn, guarantees safer environments for clients.”

Integrity Detection Systems is a forensic narcotics company that offers innovative and discreet solutions for confronting illegal drug use and trafficking. For more information about Integrity Detection Systems visit www.integritydetection.com or call 314-882-6000.

Is Drug Testing Teenagers a Bad Idea?

The American Academy of Pediatrics released a policy statement yesterday saying that drug testing teenagers at home or at school is generally a bad idea.

I agree.

However, if you look the AAP’s concerns closely, it wasn't so much the idea of drug testing teens that was the problem. It's the urine tests schools and parents use to conduct the testing that's the problem. The AAP pointed to problems with false positives and false negatives, teens using the web to get information on how to beat the urine tests, and a short window of detection (most drugs only stay in the system for just a few days after use).

I first read the report when a friend of mine e-mailed me a link to a story about it saying "this probably isn't good for your business." Actually, I think it's GREAT for our business.

That’s because most of the concerns the AAP raises about drug testing teenagers are eliminated by using DrugWipe.

False positives and false negatives? Not an issue a DrugWipe.

Teenagers beating the drug tests? Not with DrugWipe. Parents use DrugWipe to swipe down surfaces their kids have touched when the kids aren't even around. There’s no room for any adulteration or substitution.

Short detection window? DrugWipe can detect drug residue on surfaces up to three months after use.

Another main issue that the AAP brings up is that drug testing can create a climate of “resentment, distrust, and suspicion” between a parent (or school) and a teenager.

There may be some truth to that, but isn’t that about par for the course when it comes to teenagers? Eventually, they’ll get over it.

That type of argument reminds me of something I’ve heard from a number of drug treatment specialists. They say “if you ask parents whose teenagers have battled drug addictions, they all wished they had intervened sooner, rather than later or not at all.” When it comes to drug use, there's simply too much at stake to worry about offending your teen.

Leaky Drug Testing

Here's an investigative report about the problems of urine testing from a Minnesota TV station. The video can be viewed here. The story can be read here.

The technology that certified labs use to conduct urine tests good, accurate technology. But if lab personnel aren't following the proper guidelines to insure urine samples are not being adulterated, or substituted with clean urine, what good are these tests doing??? Garbage in, garbage out.

Many companies who do extensive urine testing of their employees are often shocked when a facility-wide audit with DrugWipe indicates widespread drug use. After seeing a story like this one about the "leaks" in the system, they shouldn't be.

Beating a drug test with an Elmer's Glue bottle

Yes, our video is really based on a true story. Here it is . . .

The story came to us from someone who works at an oil refinery. There was a worker there, a frequent drug user, who had an interesting morning ritual. Every morning, when he got dressed he would strap an Elmer's Glue bottle to the inside of his thigh with an ace bandage. The Elmer's Glue bottle was filled with clean urine (usually drug users either buy clean urine over the internet or get it from a friend or family member). Whenever he got pulled for a drug test, he provided a sample that looked and sounded like an actual urine stream and was the appropriate temperature for fresh urine (labs will often test the temperature of urine samples to try to catch those providing fake samples).

This guy got away with it for a couple of years. The only reason he eventually got caught was that his wife got fed up with his drug addiction and called to tell her husband's supervisor what was going on. If she hadn't done that, he'd probably still be getting away with it today. That is providing he didn't kill himself and/or someone else in the interim.

"A Drug Test With a Twist"

Check out the new IDS video, "A Drug Test With a Twist" (click the video screen above to view it). We didn't have $7.8 million to run it during the Super Bowl, so we decided to post it on the internet (for considerably less money) instead!

You can also view our video at any of the following sites by clicking on a link below:

YouTube
Google
Yahoo!

DROP IN DRUG USE????

According to this AP article, the Drug Czar John Walters is reporting that illegal drug use has dropped sharply since 2001. He cites numbers from a University of Michigan study conducted for the National Institute for Substance Abuse that show a 23% drop in drug use among teenagers. Walters credits drug testing for much of this decline. He also reports that drug use among "older people" dropping as well.

I blogged about studies like this not too long ago. As much as I'd like to believe drug use is dropping in this country, I just can't fathom there's much truth to those numbers.

Spending a good bit of my time swiping down businesses, homes, and schools with DrugWipe and talking to business owners, parents, and school officials about the drug problems they're grappling with, it would be a VERY scary thought that drug use is on the decline. And even if there is some truth to the numbers in this study, we still have a LONG way to go!

24 Things Drug Users Take To Beat a Drug Test

Drug use is a way of life. So is drug testing. Where the two meet, there's a never-ending Cat and Mouse game between the users and the testers. It's enlightening reading through message boards where drug users share information about how to beat these tests. Here's a list of 24 things I came across in just a few minutes of skimming the message board thread I posted about recently:

1. water
2. fishoil
3. niacin
4. Tums
5. salt
6. Cranberry pills
7. Green tea pills
8. multi-vitamin pills
9. aspirin pills
10. creatine pills
11. exercise
12. Mountain Dew
13. Gatorade
14. Powerade
15. beer
16. coffee
17. Qcarbo juice drink
18. McDonald's cheeseburgers
19. Philly cheesesteaks
20. lysine
21. Vitamin B
22. Vitamin C
23. Vitamin E
24. apple cider vinegar

There were seemingly infinite combinations of which items listed above were used and how much of each item was used. These people have this down to a science. And I didn't even get into the things users do to smuggle "clean" urine in for a drug test. That's another post in itself.

Wouldn't you think it would just be easier not to use drugs in the first place?

How To Pass a Drug Test

Think you're getting accurate results with that urine test you're using on your teen or employee?

The technology you're using is pretty sound, especially when a certified lab is administering the test. However, drug users are pretty savvy. Substitution and adulteration are the most common tricks they use to "beat" traditional drug tests. And the frequent users, the ones who generally pose the greatest risk to themselves, and others, are the ones that have these tricks down to a science.

Don't take my word for it, though. Take theirs. Keep in mind this is just one thread, from message board topic, from one website.

DRUG TESTING INC.

In this interesting article from November 2004 Inc. Magazine author and serial entrepreneur Norm Brodsky talks about his experiences in establishing a drug testing policy in one of his companies.

I can talk and talk about the negative effects of drugs in the workplace and the positive effects that drug testing has until I'm red in the face. Sometimes it's more effective to let others do your talking for you and Mr. Brodsky does that quite nicely in this article. When it comes to implementing an effective drug testing policy, many business owners are afraid of the costs of the program, the legal issues, having to fire employees, and other factors. Mr. Brodsky was too. But he went forward with drug testing anyway and here's an excerpt of what the result was:

Although we offered the others drug treatment and a chance to reapply for a job, we got no takers. Overall, we wound up losing about 25% of our work force -- fewer than we'd feared, but a significant number nonetheless.

Yet the drug testing did work. The accident rate declined, as did the incidence of petty theft. Even more gratifying was the response of the employees who remained: They thanked us. They said they felt safer. Only then did I begin to appreciate the real importance of having a drug-free company. It wasn't just about reducing our liability, or even keeping someone from getting hurt, as much as we wanted to do both. It was also about creating a better working environment for the other employees, the ones on whom we depend most heavily, the people we absolutely must figure out how to keep.

And on top of that, we got a bonus. Our drug-testing program made us more attractive to insurers, allowing us to move our policies to a better provider. Over time, moreover, a lower accident rate would translate into lower workers' comp costs.

WHAT'S THE POINT?

We've been getting a lot of positive feedback about the media coverage yesterday and today for our narcotics assessment at Lebanon High School. We've also been hearing a lot of positive remarks about the school for taking the initiative to do something about teenage drug use.

One question we have come up again and again is "What's the point of a surface assessment?" We're testing property and not people. We're testing blocks of lockers and don't know how many lockers in each block may have narcotic residue on them. Even if we narrow things down to one locker, it might not be the student who's assigned to the locker that's responsible for the drug residue.

Yes, this is all true. To understand the importance and value of a surface assessment, you need to take a step back.

Most of us think of drug testing in the traditional sense - you go pee in a cup, give a blood sample, or have some hair clipped. A lot of this is done in a random fashion which, by definition, is a pretty inefficient way of approaching things. It takes a big investment of time and money to design and implement a drug testing program, whether it's in a school or an business setting. And you're doing all this for a problem that the statistics show only affects a relatively small percentage of your workforce or student population.

But what if there was a way, before all that happens, to assess what drug problems are really present in the school or business? Would it be helpful to know that there is little to no drug use by freshman but cocaine is prevalent by senior year? Would it be helpful to know that there's no evidence of drug activity in your warehouse, but your trucks are contaminated by residue from meth and marijuana? Would it be helpful to know that while your drug education program is telling students not to smoke pot, they are actually more into heroin?

That's the information DrugWipe provides. It says instead of taking a cookie cutter approach to drug testing, drug education, drug prevention, etc., find out what specific problems you have in your facility. That way you can develop a plan to effectively address the areas of greatest concern.

As a friend put it to me the other day, "If you don't know what you're up against, how can you stop it?"

Lebanon High School Assessment

Yesterday, an assessment we performed at Lebanon High School was covered by all local news stations (here's a link to a clip from KSDK) and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. After trying to get media coverage here locally for over a year, it was really something to have all the local stations and the Post show up at the same time! We're still trying to digest it all, but I have some thoughts on the assessment.

1. Thanks. First, we want to express our appreciation and thanks to the Lebanon School District and Superintendent Harry Cavanaugh for allowing the media to cover the assessment at their school. We'd also like to thank the members of the media for coming out to cover the story and put some attention on the problem of drug use by teens.

2. Courage. There's a lot of denial about drug problems out there and the Lebanon School District was willing to not only take the step to learn about what types of problems they have but to share it with the media. That takes a lot of courage.

3. Common. I wish I could say the results were unexpected. Some people might hear the media report that 8 out of the 17 DrugWipes used tested positive for drugs and be shocked. The results are neither surprising nor uncommon. Unfortunately, we would be hard pressed to go into a school in this country and not find evidence of drug use or trafficking. There is no reason to believe, based on these initial results, that the Lebanon School District has any larger or smaller drug problem than any other school district in the country.

4. Denial. Many school districts would rather just look the other way when it comes to drugs. Administrators and parents would like to believe it's not a problem in their community or with their children. Unfortunately, the problem only gets attention when something bad happens such as the drug bust at Lutheran South here in St. Louis earlier this year or the murder of the Lindbergh High School student by another student who reportedly was a known drug user. While these stories get the big headlines, this is a problem that is going on every day in most high schools (and many middle schools) across the country. Addressing drug use by teenagers is neither easy nor fun. But it is necessary. Most drug addictions start between the ages of 12 and 14. The earlier you can intervene, the better the chance of getting a child back on the right track. Denying that teens use drugs wastes precious time.

5. Reality. Perhaps one of the greatest advantages of surface assessments with DrugWipe is that it makes drug use "real". It takes it from the abstract to an in-your-face, here are the facts of the situation. The bottom line is, if you don't know a problem exists, how can you stop it? DrugWipe makes the problem "real" and lets school administrators and business owners acutely aware of what the problems are, and where they need to focus their attention to address the problem.

6. Focus. While we do not divulge the results of any surface assessments we perform, it was reported by the media that 8 of the 17 DrugWipes we used last night tested positive. This is baseline data that, in and of itself, does not mean much. We will be providing the Lebanon School District with a report soon that details our findings. This will let them see exactly what problems there are by grade level and by gender. This will help them focus their anti-drug efforts on the groups that need it most.

7. Exhaustion. Have you ever tried to do your job with journalists asking you questions, photographers snapping pictures, and video cameras rolling?! Let me tell you, it ain't easy! It was a long afternoon and the calls and emails have already started to come in. Though exhausted, I'm not complaining!

8. Hope. While the Lebanon School District was hoping the tests would reveal no indication of drug use by students, that unfortunately wasn't the case. They found out yesterday that, like most high schools, they do face some problems with student drug use. However, I am hopeful that with this information they will begin to develop a plan to address these issues and provide education, intervention, etc. for the students that need it. That's what this is all about. It's not to go on a witchhunt for students who are using or trafficking drugs and prosecute them. It's for assessing the facts of the situation and using whatever tools are available to help kids stay on the path to a bright, productive future. The fact that the Lebanon School District stepped up to the plate and is facing the issue of student drug use head on, makes me hopeful that's exactly what they are going to do for their students.

“Catching the Stupid Drug Users”

Bill and I had a really enjoyable conversation today with a gentleman who oversees a number of construction sites that have multiple contractors/subcontractors on each site. Drug use is a great concern and the workers are all subjected to pre-employment tests, post-accident tests, random tests, for-cause tests, tests based on number of hours worked, etc. All the testing done is urine testing administered by a third party provider.

Even with all that drug testing, the feeling they have is that they are still “only catching the stupid drug users.” Now there is definitely a lot of merit to doing that. The “stupid" ones are probably the employees to be the most concerned about as far as accident risk, productivity loss, violent behavior, etc. But there a lot more drug users who escape under the radar. They know how to adulterate the urine samples, substitute samples (congratulations, sir, you passed your drug test but it turns out you’re pregnant), they time things so they know when to stop using drugs to avoid detection.

It seems like such an inefficient system. You’re spending all this money on drug testing, 90%+ of the people you are testing aren’t even on drugs, and you’re still missing some of the ones who are.

I’m not going to go off on a big sales pitch here, but doesn’t it make sense to have a system in place that can proactively and non-invasively determine if there is a problem and where those problems are? Then when you find evidence of drug use, focus your resources on areas where you know there’s a problem instead of trying to find that needle in the haystack. That’s the power of DrugWipe.

Got D.O.T.?

This afternoon I was talking with the managers from a local company about drug testing. Most of the employees of this company are truck drivers who fall under the D.O.T. testing guidelines. For those of you who aren’t familiar with these, the Department of Transportation has guidelines requiring drug testing for drivers who operate a commercial vehicle in interstate or intrastate commerce. If you ever have trouble falling asleep, you can read all 103 pages of the guidelines here. I have made my way through the entire document, but it was quite a struggle. My favorite part was the one that describes what color the water in the toilet has to be in bathrooms where a DOT drug test is conducted (the answer is blue).

The purpose of these guidelines is admirable. The DOT wants to ensure drivers who operate large trucks and heavy machinery are not using drugs and therefore posing a safety risk to themselves, their coworkers, and the public. You don’t want to be driving down the interstate with 18 wheelers whose drivers are high on cocaine or smoking a joint!

However, the guidelines do have loopholes.

The biggest drawback is that most DOT drug testing is done on a random basis. This is not the most efficient way of drug testing, as I discussed in my last post. In the company I was talking to today, they said they’ve had employees who’ve been pulled for drug testing twice within 4 months while others who have not been pulled in 4 years. They don’t think it’s a particularly effective way of drug testing, and I don’t disagree.

Another big drawback to the DOT guidelines (and I’m admittedly biased) is that currently they only allow for urine testing. Urine may not be the best tool for a company to use for drug testing. It could be. But it also could be DrugWipe, PreScreen, hair testing, blood testing, saliva testing, or a combination of these. But companies don’t have the freedom to choose what they think works best for them to be compliant under the DOT requirements. They’re stuck with urine.

There are revised guidelines in the works that do include these other forms of testing. Earlier this year I was talking with a gentleman from SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) in Washington DC and asked him when he thought these guidelines would become the law. He just kind of laughed and said when you have bureaucracy and lobbying efforts at work, it’s anyone’s guess.

Even though DrugWipe is not currently sanctioned under DOT guidelines, trucking companies, including one of the largest trucking firms in the nation, are turning to DrugWipe to fill in the gaps of the DOT drug testing programs. It provides companies, like the one I talked with today, a way to be proactive, establish reasonable cause for DOT urine testing, and more effectively mitigate their risks from drug using drivers.

Any type of testing, other than the DOT urine test, can be a tough sell in the transportation industry. Many trucking companies do the minimum testing required under the DOT guidelines. One main factor is cost. Another main factor is that currently there’s a big driver shortage in the industry. It’s very hard to replace drivers these days. If you have to let one go due to a drug problem (or any other reason, for that matter), the truck they were driving could be sitting idle on the lot for a while. That means lost revenue. Some companies would rather have those trucks on the road and take the chance that a drug using driver won’t get into a serious accident.

I hope the revised DOT guidelines will be enacted soon so transportation companies will be given the freedom to use the testing procedure(s) they think will provide them with the best results in the most cost-effective way possible.


Oh, one last thing – GO CARDINALS!!!!

Is Drug Testing a Waste of Money?

Employers large and small together spend millions upon millions of dollars each year on their drug testing programs. Do the rewards justify the costs?

You could make a very good argument that, yes, they do. Drug activity in the workplace is a major drain on business. It affects productivity, insurance costs, workplace theft, safety, absenteeism and more (click here for some specifics). There are also negative affects on things that can’t be so easily measured such as worker morale, customer service, quality, and damage to a company’s reputation.

A well-crafted drug testing program provides a deterrent to drug use and does help reduce the amount of drug use in the workplace. It also helps employers find the employees who are using drugs and either get them help through some sort of an employee assistance program or get rid of them. Reducing and eliminating drugs from the workplace does make a difference. Many companies have seen great benefits from drug testing and there are studies showing how effective they can be.

However, even with a well-crafted, well-implemented drug testing program there is a tremendous amount of waste. With the traditional urine, hair, and blood testing you are testing a lot more people (through random tests and pre-employment screens) than need be. It's taking a needle in the haystack approach. Essentially you're doing something you don't need 90% of the time (since government statistics indicate about 10% of the workforce uses drugs). If only 10% of your workforce needed to wear hardhats, would you buy a hardhat for everyone in the company? Would you buy the right number of hardhats but then hand them out randomly hoping that the employees who need them, get them? No, of course not. That’s a big waste of time and money!

With DrugWipe, you are finding the people who are actively impaired on the job – not those who use drugs recreationally on the weekends. DrugWipe surface assessments lead you right to the people who have the most impact on your company’s safety, security, and bottom line profits. This way you're basically eliminating the waste of the traditional tests and focusing attention and resources on the problem, not just taking a stab in the dark. It simplifies the process and makes drug testing much more efficient.

How much money could you be wasting on your drug testing program?