NORTHEAST MINOR EMERGENCY CENTERS TEST TEENS FOR DRUGS

Teenagers Who Would Rather Be Naughty Than Nice This Holiday Season:
Beware. When It Comes To Detecting Whether Their Children Are Abusing
Drugs, Parents Are Increasingly Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands,
Say Administrators At The Area Northeast Minor Emergency Centers (NEMEC)

"Parents will bring their kids in kicking and screaming to be drug
tested," said Brenda Bedient, clinical manager of NEMEC. In most
cases, parents request that a urinalysis screen be conducted, she
says, because "they want to know immediately what the kid did last
night."

Results from urine drug screens usually come back within 24 hours,
Bedient explained. The laboratory costs of the screening run about
$150 and are not covered by insurance.

To make the process a little less traumatic on a family, Bedient
suggests to parents that they "call and talk to me and have them come
in through the back (of the clinic), instead of telling the world what
the child is in there for." The E.R. doctor on call also sits down
with the parents and child to find out why they are there and attempts
to diffuse the situation, she says. Because the kids are usually angry
about being there, the clinic often uses special measures to get them
to comply with the testing. "We tell them if you don't give a
specimen, we can draw your blood," says Bedient. "They'll take the cup
over the needle."

To insure an accurate sample from an unwilling patient, the clinic
staff "turns off all the water in the restroom and puts iodine in the
toilet (to color the water)," Bedient explains. "A person stands
outside the door to make sure they don't hear water running." She
notes that patients have been known to water down their samples to
bias the results.

While parents want urinalysis because of the quick results, employers
are opting for a newer form of drug testing using hair samples. For
the past year, Northeast Minor Emergency Centers have been offering
hair analysis drug screens at their three locations in Atascocita,
Kingwood and Humble, says Dale Smith, director of NEMEC.

The proprietary procedure from the Psychemedics Corporation "measures
drug molecules permanently entrapped in hair following drug ingestion"
within the last 90 days, according to the company's literature. A
standard hair screening requires a lock of hair approximately
one-and-one half-inches long and the width of a shoelace and costs
about $150.

The clinics' employees are certified in "cosmetically-undetectable
hair collection," taking the samples from the back of the head, just
below the crown. "The most recent hair growth is where the drug
concentration will be," notes Smith, adding that it takes between five
to seven days after drug use for affected hair to grow from the scalp.

"The interesting thing about hair testing is that it works even for
people who are bald," adds Smith. "We can use hair under their arms or
from other parts of their body."

Employers conducting pre-employment drug screening want hair testing
because it provides a longer, and more accurate, history of drug use
than urinalysis, says Smith. "The trend is to hair (analysis) because
it is a no-fail thing. There's so many ways patients try to evade
detection with urine." Some of the tricks drug users try which she
discussed include bringing in another person's urine sample or
refrigerating a pre-drugs sample and warming it prior to their
appointment.

Tampering with hair samples is not as likely. Washing or chemically
treating the hair won't remove the drugs, warns Smith. "The drugs are
in the protein of the hair." Another reason employers like hair
testing is that "when you cut a strand, you know that the hair belongs
to the person it is supposed to," says Smith. This complies with the
"chain of custody" procedures which the clinic must follow to insure
drug test results will withstand legal challenges.

A sample is sealed and signed in front of the donor. The seal must not
be broken when it arrives at the lab for the results to be certified
and admissible in court, explained the clinic administrators about how
the chain of custody rules work.

During the past year, Northeast Minor Emergency has more than doubled
the number of drug screens it conducts, primarily because of the new
Wal-Marts that have opened in the area which require pre-employment
drug testing, says clinical manager Bedient. She says the clinic
currently conducts between 20 and 40 employer-sponsored drug screens
per month.

"A lot of employers now contract with clinics as their company doctor
to do their physicals and workman's comp," said Smith, explaining that
workers' compensation claims require a drug screen to make sure the
employee was not under the influence of illegal drugs when injured on
the job. The screens test for cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, PCP
and opiates. The emergency centers are a service of Northeast Medical
Center Hospital. For more information about drug testing, contact
Northeast Minor Emergency Centers at 281-358-3006.