ERROR IN DRUG TESTING FOR BFP ANGERS TOM

THE surprise drug test conducted on Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP)
personnel last Aug. 11 turned out to be futile after their urine
samples were found to be unfit for confirmatory testing.

Two BFP personnel tested positive for illegal drugs in the initial
screening of 214 BFP personnel during, but more than two weeks had
elapsed and the results had yet to undergo confirmatory tests.

It turned out that not enough urine sample was taken during that
screening, a Cebu City councilor said.

Relief Order

The delay in the confirmatory testing angered Mayor Tomas Osmena
yesterday and immediately ordered the relief of those responsible for
it.

The City Government conducted the drug test with the Cebu City Police
Office (CCPO) crime laboratory and the Cebu City Office for Substance
Abuse Prevention (Cosap).

"Just change them if they don't know how to do their job. Change the
people responsible, especially in Cosap," he told a new conference
yesterday.

Not Enough

Councilor Augustus "Jun" Pe, chairman of the City Council's committee
on dangerous drugs, admitted yesterday that the urine samples taken
from the two BFP personnel could no longer undergo confirmatory
testing because not enough sample was taken.

"We also failed to follow it up, maybe that's why the crime lab also
did not give it priority," Pe told Sun.Star.

The CCPO crime laboratory had to submit the urine samples to the
Police Regional Office crime laboratory, the agency authorized to
conduct a confirmatory drug test.