
Fentanyl will soon be one of the substances truckers will be tested for during DOT drug screenings.
On Jan. 16, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services published an issuance of authorized drug testing panels to the Federal Register. The guidance adds fentanyl to the panels of Schedule I and II drugs and biomarkers authorized for testing in federal workplace drug testing programs.
The addition of the drug was proposed for inclusion as early as 2015. According to the agencies, at that time, fentanyl was not added to the panels because it was “primarily found as a mixture with heroin,” something that was already being tested for under the mandatory guidelines.
“However, the illicit drug market and epidemiological data on drug use and overdose have changed since that time: Fentanyl, primarily illicitly made fentanyl, is involved in a large percentage of overdose deaths in the United States and is therefore an important public safety concern,” the agencies said.
The agencies point out that fentanyl is “increasingly used as a stand-alone substance among people who use drugs, not in conjunction with heroin and other substances,” warranting its addition to the testing panels.
Data from the National Forensic Laboratory Information System 2022 Annual Report shows fentanyl was the third-most frequently identified drug, accounting for 13.81% of all drugs reported by forensic laboratories.
The revised drug testing panels – which will apply to both urine and oral fluid testing – will go into effect July 7.
In addition to placing fentanyl on the testing panel, the agencies also considered removing MDA and MDMA (Ecstasy) from the list.
The reason for the proposed removal, according to the agencies, was “because the number of positive specimens reported by HHS-certified laboratories did not seem to support testing all specimens for MDA and MDMA.”
The agencies point to data from the National Laboratory Certification Program, which shows the positivity rate for MDMA over the past three years to have been at or below 0.002%.
“A further review of the NLCP data shows that almost 40% of MDMA-positive urine specimens are also positive for another drug to include amphetamines (7%), benzoylecgonine (9%) and THC (21%), indicating that these specimens would be identified as drug-positive by other means,” the agencies said.
After receiving public comment on the proposed removal of MDA and MDMA, the agencies decided not to remove the two drugs from the testing panels at this time, saying it would require further study before doing so. LL
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