A prime producer of drug testing know-how has introduced a brand new screening panel that now not detects marijuana and as an alternative prioritizes fentanyl and different managed substances in response to the “relentless change and the urgent have to adapt” as extra states legalize hashish.
Psychemedics mentioned its up to date Superior 5-Panel Drug Display screen “will rework the best way organizations safeguard their workplaces, shifting the highlight from marijuana to the paramount menace of fentanyl.”
The screening panel, which the corporate mentioned has been authorized by the Meals and Drug Administration, can also be being touted for elevated accuracy within the detection of cocaine, opioids, PCP and amphetamines.
“As we grapple with an ongoing labor scarcity and with marijuana’s authorized panorama evolving in 49 states, it’s clear that the time for a change has come,” Psychemedics, which was based in 1987 and pioneered the usage of hair testing, said in a press launch on Friday. “Conventional 5-panel drug checks, rooted in a four-decade-old paradigm, have did not evolve in at the moment’s drug market and are unable to detect the rising drug, fentanyl.”
Brian Hullinger, president and CEO at Psychemedics mentioned that “few challenges within the office have undergone as dramatic a metamorphosis because the shifting dynamics between marijuana and fentanyl.”
“Recognizing this shift, Psychemedics has developed the Superior 5-Panel to bridge the hole,” he mentioned.
An growing variety of authorized hashish states have enacted protections for staff who use marijuana off responsibility, stopping employers from taking hostile motion over state-sanctioned actions.
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For instance, California’s governor just lately authorized a invoice to ban employers from asking job candidates about prior marijuana use.
In Michigan, a coverage took impact this month that ends pre-employment drug testing for marijuana for many authorities job candidates, whereas additionally giving individuals who’ve already been penalized over optimistic THC checks a chance to have the sanction retroactively rescinded.
In Could, the governor of Washington State signed a invoice into legislation that can shield staff from going through employment discrimination through the hiring course of over their lawful use of marijuana.
Meaning Washington has joined Nevada in prohibiting discrimination towards job candidates for testing optimistic for marijuana. New York additionally gives broader employment protections for adults who legally use hashish throughout off-hours and away from work.
On the congressional stage, the Home Guidelines Committee has repeatedly blocked makes an attempt by lawmakers to finish the follow of drug testing federal job candidates for marijuana as a part of large-scale spending payments this session.
Over within the Senate, nonetheless, members handed protection laws in July that accommodates provisions to bar intelligence businesses just like the CIA and NSA from denying safety clearances to candidates solely as a consequence of their previous marijuana use.
The Home Oversight and Accountability Committee additionally handed a standalone bipartisan invoice late final month that may forestall the denial of federal employment or safety clearances based mostly on a candidate’s previous marijuana use.
On the similar time, there are rising issues about fentanyl within the drug provide. Whereas specialists have challenged claims about fentanyl-laced marijuana, there’s recognition that the potent opioid is being detected in medication like heroin and cocaine.
Picture courtesy of Martin Alonso.