PROFESSIONALS CLOSELY MONITOR DRUG TESTS IN COUNTY SCHOOLS

Marti Jones, a Conway High School graduate, is the first person to know
which students will be drug tested in Faulkner County and the first to know
the results.

"Nobody sees the list until I get there," Jones said. An employee of
Counseling Associates Inc. in Morrilton, Jones does random drug testing for
10 schools, including the Faulkner County schools.

"Every school does it differently," she said. Some schools provide
students' Social Security numbers, some use ID numbers and others provide
names. Jones inputs these into her computer and "it will spit out those names."

She normally goes to the nurse's office at each school and the students
come in "one at a time."

The test, which will cost $16 each this year, tests for five drugs --
marijuana, amphetamines, methamphetamines, cocaine and opiates.

The cap is taken off the test and placed in the specimen cup for one minute
and then, "like a pregnancy test, a line comes up for each drug" that tests
positive. "If they're positive, I take them to Baptist (Medical Center) to
be confirmed," Jones said. "They (schools) don't do anything until it's
confirmed by the lab."

In addition to invasion of privacy, opponents to random drug testing have
raised the issue of false positives.

Jones said "false positives aren't a problem." Students are asked about
prescription medications before the test is given, she said.

Dr. Samuel Mathews, clinical chemist for the toxicology lab at Baptist
Medical Center where the schools' samples are sent, said the chances of a
false positive are "infinitesimally small." If the lab gets a positive
result, "we take a fresh sample from the cup" and run another test, he said.

"People just need to understand that the technology that's used is state of
the art, and it's rigorously validated," Mathews said. The Baptist Medical
Center toxicology lab is the only federally certified lab in the state, he
said.

For example, even though poppy seeds can cause a positive drug test, "it
will show a low amount of morphine and no codeine." He attaches a statement
to the results that "this type of positive could be indicative of poppy seeds."

Also, Mathews said studies show it would be difficult for someone to test
positive on the lab tests "just on passive inhalation" of marijuana.

He said some students are concerned about samples getting switched, but
great care is taken to prevent that. "We only handle one sample at a time.
We pour it ... verify the label ... take it to a different refrigerator,
and go get the next one," he said.

Jones has been administering the random drug tests for three years. "The
urine tests seem to work well," she said, adding students "never seem
embarrassed about it, because we bring them in one at a time."

New technology, an oral swab test, is now available, Jones said.

The company in Batesville which markets the swabs lists the cost at $25.70
per kit. A spokesman for the company could not be reached for comment.

Dr. David Bangs, Vilonia assistant high school principal who oversees the
school's drug-testing program, said the district spent $10,207 the first
year on drug testing.

"Our goal in drug testing is not to label, it's not to get a kid in trouble
... our goal is to help a kid who has got a problem and that's it. That's
the very bottom line," he said.