Author: John

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Drug Testing for Unemployment Benefits

Sep 26 2016

Drug Testing for Unemployment BenefitsAfter four years of the initial law being passed, which would allow states to drug test applicants for federal unemployment payments, The Ready to Work Act of 2016 bill was passed by Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas introduced H.R. 5945 

This bill fully implements the bi-partisan 2012 law which overturned a 1960’s era Department of Labor ban against states drug testing unemployment applicants.

The legislation confirms that states would be allowed, but not required, to test unemployment applicants who lost their jobs as a result of drug use or are seeking a new job that generally requires new employees to pass a drug test.

States would also be allowed to create or design programs that would assist unemployed applicants overcome any obstacles relating to their drug use and be ready for work.

The White House defaulted on their responsibility to implement the law as Congress had originally intended.  There were several roadblocks, delays and obstructive regulations issued during the past four years which would guarantee progressive states such as Texas could not screen and test for drugs.

Texas officials deem this is a common-sense measure to ensure unemployed workers are ready and available to work and potential employers have access to good workers.  It is their belief that a potential employee should be able to pass a basic pre-employment drug test for a job that requires one.

Background: In 2012, Congress passed and President Obama signed the bipartisan Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act, which included an important policy allowing (but not requiring) states to test UI applicants who either (1) lost their job due to drug use, or (2) are seeking a new job that generally requires new employees to pass a drug test.

In August of this year, over four years after the drug testing provision was enacted, DOL issued its final rule, which fell significantly short of achieving the intended purpose of the law, effectively preventing states from implementing this important policy.

The Ready to Work Act of 2016 provides relief from the final DOL rule so that states—not the federal government—can determine how to administer UI benefits and help unemployed Americans return to work.

The following members of the Committee on Ways and Means joined Chairman Brady in introducing the “Ready to Work Act of 2016”: U.S. Reps. Sam Johnson (TX-03), Peter Roskam (IL-06), Charles Boustany (LA-03), Tom Price (GA-06), Tom Reed (NY-23), Mike Kelly (PA-03), George Holding (NC-13), Adrian Smith (NE-03), Jason Smith (MO-08).


For information regarding the effects of drug abuse – Click Here
For  information on a drug free work place – Click Here
For  information on substance abuse programs – Click Here
For information on DOT Drug / Alcohol Testing requirements – Click Here
 

John Burgos, CPC
Business Development Manager
https://accrediteddrugtesting.net
(800) 221-4291
Accredited Drug Testing Inc
Health Screening USA Inc

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2 Dead and 17 Injured In NJ Transit Bus Accident 

Aug 29 2016

2 Dead and 17 Injured In NJ Transit Bus Accident

A tragic accident occurred on Friday morning August 19, 2016 when two NJ Transit busses collided.

The driver of the No. 59 bus driver was traveling westbound on Broad Street with no passengers onboard when it T-boned the No. 13 bus headed north on Raymond Boulevard with approximately 20 passengers onboard.

According to a NJ Transit spokesperson, the driver of the 59 bus and 1 passenger were killed along with 17 other passengers taken to nearby hospitals with seven listed in critical condition.  When the two buses collided, the impact forced one to flip over and appeared to be partially split in half at a Newark intersection Friday morning.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and Department Of Transportation (DOT) regulations 49 CFR Part 382.303 regulates the criteria for post accident testing.

 

What CDL/DOT Drivers Need to Know

DOT drug and alcohol tests include:

  • Pre-employment – An employer must receive a negative drug test result before permitting a CDL driver to operate a CMV.
  • Post-accident – Drug and alcohol tests may be required after crashes.  Click here for info https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/drug-alcohol-testing/what-tests-are-required-and-when-does-testing-occur
  • Random – CDL drivers must be randomly tested throughout the year.  Any employer who employs only himself/herself as a driver, who is not leased to a motor carrier, shall implement a random testing program of two or more covered employees in the random testing selection pool as a member of a consortium.
  • Reasonable suspicion – Drivers who appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol are subject to immediate testing. Employers must have trained supervisors to detect the symptoms of driver impairment.
  • Return-to-duty – This is required for drivers who have tested positive, refused to test, or otherwise violated the prohibitions of  49 CFR Part 382 Subpart B; and drivers must also complete the return-to-duty process with a DOT-qualified substance abuse professional. This return to duty test is directly observed, and a negative result is required before resuming driving duties.
  • Follow-up – Required for drivers who tested positive, refused, or otherwise violated the prohibitions of and who have completed the return-to-duty process with a DOT-qualified substance abuse professional, and have tested negative for a return-to-duty test. This testing is prescribed by the substance abuse professional for a minimum of 6 directly observed tests in 12 months, but could be extended an additional four years.


For information regarding the effects of drug abuse – Click Here
For  information on a drug free work place – Click Here
For  information on substance abuse programs – Click Here
For information on DOT Drug / Alcohol Testing requirements – Click Here
John Burgos, CPC
Business Development Manager
https://accrediteddrugtesting.net
(800) 221-4291
Accredited Drug Testing Inc
Health Screening USA Inc

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Are Olympic Athletes Allowed To Smoke Weed? Drug Testing At Rio Will Not Be Strict.

Aug. 1 2016

Are Olympic Athletes Allowed To Smoke Weed?
(Photo: Sports Images for USA TODAY)

Marijuana use has been a dicey subject for Olympic athletes in the past. Back in 2009, Michael Phelps acknowledged a photo of him using a bong was real, and he was suspended from competition for three months. On top of that, he lost a lucrative sponsorship from Kellogg’s. Now, eight years after Phelps won big with eight gold medals in Beijing, he, along thousands more athletes, will head to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the summer Olympic Games. Over the intervening years, marijuana has been decriminalized in jurisdictions around the world. But what about for Olympians? Are Olympic athletes allowed to smoke weed?

Since the 2014 Winter Olympics, athletes have not needed to worry about testing unless they are extreme users. Technically cannabis is included on the list of banned substances in competition, so, no, athletes cannot use it during the games. But before or after is just fine. In May 2013 the World Anti-Doping Agency raised the level of allowed marijuana in an athlete’s system 10 times the prior amount to 150 nanograms per milliliter. That’s makes it harder for someone who uses it outside of competitions like the Olympics to test positive.

Before the rule change, there was always the possibility that an athlete would test positive for the drug, even when they had only been using it recreationally before the competitive event. Four athletes tested positive for THC in 2012 when the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency conducted tests before the London games. That was a very small percentage of athletes, but it led to at least one wrestler being kept from the team.

We are seeing so many changes in the way people view marijuana. Many sports teams across the US have ran into contradictions and issues where it may be legal in there home state however, it is not everywhere else. Accredited Drug Testing will work hard and continue to keep people in safety sensitive positions drug free. Drug Free Workplace Programs are a great idea to avoid liability and what is most important, not having innocent people hurt because of poor decision making from someone else.

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For information regarding the effects of drug abuse – Click Here
For  information on a drug free work place – Click Here
For  information on substance abuse programs – Click Here
For information on DOT Drug / Alcohol Testing requirements – Click Here
 

Brandon Rains
Director Of Online Marketing
https://accrediteddrugtesting.net
(800) 221-4291
Accredited Drug Testing Inc
Health Screening USA Inc

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The Presidential Candidates Stand On Drug Policy

July 26 2016

The Presidential Candidates Stand On Drug Policy
Donald Trump campaigns in Cincinnati. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images)

The last time the Democratic Party’s platform mentioned marijuana was in 1984, when it cited “25 million regular abusers of marijuana” and “15,000 tons of marijuana” entering the United States each year as “clear evidence that we are losing the effort overseas to control the production and transshipment of…dangerous drugs.” The draft for this year’s platform mentions marijuana half a dozen times, and the context is notably different:

We believe that the states should be laboratories of democracy on the issue of marijuana, and those states that want to decriminalize marijuana should be able to do so. We support policies that will allow more research on marijuana, as well as reforming our laws to allow legal marijuana businesses to exist without uncertainty. And we recognize our current marijuana laws have had an unacceptable disparate impact, with arrest rates for marijuana possession among African Americans far outstripping arrest rates among whites, despite similar usage rates.

Assuming something like that language is included in the final version of the platform, the Democrats, after three decades of silence on the subject, have gone from advocating an escalation of the war on weed to facilitating more tolerant approaches, including outright legalization. What’s more, every presidential candidate you are likely to see on your ballot this November agrees that states should be free to legalize marijuana—a remarkable development attributable not only to the landmark 2012 initiatives in Colorado and Washington but to a concomitant shift in public opinion nationwide.

Once you get beyond the question of how the federal government should respond to states that legalize marijuana, there are some notable differences on drug policy among the four parties with wide ballot access. Here is a summary of where they stand, arranged from least to most tolerant.

 Republican Party

Unlike New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former rival for the GOP nomination who is now a supporter and potential running mate, Donald Trump has never promised to stop marijuana legalization in its tracks. To the contrary, he says “that should be a state issue,” although he also says legalization is bad idea (albeit one he used to support, not only for marijuana but for other drugs as well).

Marijuana federalism aside, Trump sounds like an unreconstructed drug warrior. “I’m going to create borders,” he promises. “No drugs are coming in. We’re gonna build a wall. You know what I’m talking about. You have confidence in me. Believe me, I will solve the problem.”

That’s how most Republicans and many Democrats have been talking about drugs for as long as I can remember: If only we put our minds to it and spend enough money, we can stop the flow of drugs that threatens to turn us into a nation of dope fiends. A century of failure with this approach should have demonstrated its folly even to those unfamiliar with the economics of black markets.

On the question of how to treat Americans who manage to obtain arbitrarily proscribed intoxicants despite the best efforts of border-blocking drug warriors, Trump sounds at least as sympathetic as Richard Nixon. “The people that are in trouble, the people that are addicted, we’re going to work with them and try to make them better,” he says, “and we will make them better.”

Democratic Party

Hillary Clinton is down with “laboratories of democracy,” as long as the experiments involve cannabis. “I want to wait and see what the evidence is,” she says. Unlike Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who ran against her in the Democratic primaries, Clinton is not ready to repeal federal prohibition, although she thinks marijuana should be moved from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act to Schedule II, which she says will facilitate medical research.

Clinton’s promises regarding addiction treatment are at least as grandiose as Trump’s plan to stop drugs at the border. “There are 23 million Americans suffering from addiction,” she says. “But no one is untouched. We all have family and friends who are affected. We can’t afford to stay on the sidelines any longer—because when families are strong, America is strong. Through improved treatment, prevention, and training, we can end this quiet epidemic once and for all.”

Despite her compassionate pose and her support for sentencing reform, Clinton is not forswearing the use of force and violence to discourage drug use. When Clinton says “our state and federal prisons…are no substitute for proper treatment,” when she talks about “ensur[ing] every person suffering from addiction can obtain comprehensive treatment” and “prioritiz[ing] treatment over prison for low-level and nonviolent drug offenders,” what she has in mind is, at best, giving consumers of politically incorrect intoxicants a choice between a treatment slot and a jail cell.

Although Clinton’s addict estimate includes alcoholics, that is not a choice even the heaviest drinker has to confront unless he commits a crime. Drinking itself, unlike the use of illegal drugs, does not qualify. A corollary is that even casual drug users with no addiction to treat may still have to choose between treatment and jail if they happen to get caught.

Clinton does not bother to defend this blatantly unequal approach, because it is indefensible. It is therefore hard to take seriously her pose as an enlightened public servant who only wants to help “sick people that deserve to get well.” This medicalization of drug policy may take some of the rough edges off the war on drugs (or not), but only at the cost of denying the moral agency of drug users, which justifies the government’s shabby and often brutal treatment of them.

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For information regarding the effects of drug abuse – Click Here
For  information on a drug free work place – Click Here
For  information on substance abuse programs – Click Here
For information on DOT Drug / Alcohol Testing requirements – Click Here
Brandon Rains
Director Of Online Marketing
https://accrediteddrugtesting.net
(800) 221-4291
Accredited Drug Testing Inc
Health Screening USA Inc

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Five Little-known Facts About NFL Drug Policy

Five Little-known Facts About NFL Drug Policy

The NFL’s marijuana policy has been all over the news lately, from criticism of the league’s stance by the likes of Eugene Monroe, Derrick Morgan and Jake Plummer to SI Films’ upcoming in-depth look at Ricky Williams’s relationship with the drug and the sport. But how much do you really know about the sport’s actual testing, intervention and discipline procedures? We dug into the details to bring you five things you might not know about the current rules.

1. The league’s substance abuse policy predates its PED protocol. Commissioner Pete Rozelle first introduced a loose recreational drug code, focused on education, in 1971; the preseason testing structure still used today came into being as part of the ’82 CBA—and suspensions didn’t begin until ’89. Separate language for steroids didn’t appear until ’83.

2. Players outside the “intervention program”—those who’ve never had a violation—are tested just once a year. Anyone under contract is tested once between April 20 (yup: 4/20) and Aug. 9. The player is given at most a three-hour warning before being visited by a collector, who must directly witness the player providing the urine sample.

3. For every player suspended under the policy, five to 10 others anonymously enter and exit the intervention program. Not even teams are made aware of a player’s positive test until he is suspended, which only occurs after multiple violations. Team physicians, however, have that information in order to prevent cross-medication issues.

4. Marijuana is handled differently from all other substances. The discipline procedures for marijuana abusers are less strict than violations for all other drugs. Clause 1.5.2(c) states that an additional offense is allowed before suspensions are leveled in cases involving marijuana. And up until that point, fines for positive tests are less steep.

5. Hundreds of people are involved in the program. There are generally two or three clinicians per NFL team who administer treatment plans for each player in the program. Then there’s the legion of agents who help conduct 15,000-plus tests each year. Combined with the steroid program, the NFL spends about $13 million per year on its drug programs.

We have commented several times on the subject of how big of a role sports figures play in our society. We tend to forget that they are people too and can have everyday struggles that lead them down a road of poor decisions. We believe sometimes a tough Drug Free Work Place Policy can be the wake-up call some need to face reality. Drug Testing can seem intrusive and even be frustrating at times however, the lives it could help and change are endless.

For information regarding the effects of drug abuse – Click Here
For  information on a drug free work place – Click Here
For  information on substance abuse programs – Click Here
For information on DOT Drug / Alcohol Testing requirements – Click Here

Brandon Rains
Director Of Online Marketing
https://accrediteddrugtesting.net
(800) 221-4291
Accredited Drug Testing Inc
Health Screening USA Inc

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A New Direction on Drugs

Michael Botticelli says the old war on drugs is all wrong, and wants to refocus the U.S. drug policy

June 13 2016

A New Direction on Drugs

The following is a script from “A New Direction on Drugs” which aired on Dec. 13, 2015, and was rebroadcast on June 5, 2016. Scott Pelley is the correspondent. Denise Schrier Cetta, producer.

After 40 years and a trillion dollars, the nation has little to show for its war on drugs. Prisons are beyond crowded and there’s a new outbreak in the heroin epidemic. If it’s time for a change, it would be hard to find a leader more different than the man we first met last year. Michael Botticelli is the president’s new director of the National Drug Control Policy. He isn’t a cop. He’s lucky he didn’t go to jail himself. And we knew that things had changed the first time we used the nickname that comes with his job, the “drug czar.”

Michael Botticelli: It’s actually a title that I don’t like.

Scott Pelley: Why?

Michael Botticelli: Because I think it connotes this old “war on drugs” focus to the work that we do. It portrays that we are clinging to kind of failed policies and failed practices in the past.

Scott Pelley: Are you saying that the way we have waged the war on drugs for more than 40 years has been all wrong?

Michael Botticelli: It has been all wrong.

Blunt force didn’t knock out the drug epidemic. 21 million Americans are addicted to drugs or alcohol. And half of all federal inmates are in for drug crimes.

Michael Botticelli: We can’t arrest and incarcerate addiction out of people. Not only do I think it’s really inhumane, but it’s ineffective and it costs us billions upon billions of dollars to keep doing this.

Scott Pelley: So what have we learned?

Michael Botticelli: We’ve learned addiction is a brain disease. This is not a moral failing. This is not about bad people who are choosing to continue to use drugs because they lack willpower. You know, we don’t expect people with cancer just to stop having cancer.

Scott Pelley: Aren’t they doing it to themselves? Isn’t a heroin addict making that choice?

Michael Botticelli: Of course not. You know, the hallmark of addiction is that it changes your brain chemistry. It actually affects that part of your brain that’s responsible for judgment.

“WE CAN’T ARREST AND INCARCERATE ADDICTION OUT OF PEOPLE. NOT ONLY DO I THINK IT’S REALLY INHUMANE, BUT IT’S INEFFECTIVE AND IT COSTS US BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO KEEP DOING THIS.”

That is the essence of Michael Botticelli’s approach — addicts should be patients, not prisoners. He did it in Massachusetts as Director of Substance Abuse Services. There, his initiatives included a high school for teens in recovery and expanding drug courts, like this one in Washington D.C., where offenders can choose treatment over jail. And the charges can be dropped.

Scott Pelley: You know that there are people watching this interview and they’re saying to themselves, “Oh, great. He wants to open the jails and let the drug addicts out.”

Scott Pelley: I think we have to base our policy on scientific understanding. You know, and we’ve had really great models and evaluated models to show that we can simultaneously divert people away from our criminal justice system without an increase in crime. And it actually reduces crime.

Botticelli pursues reform with the passion of the converted because he, himself, is recovering from addiction. Back in 1988, he was a university administrator, whose car slammed into a truck. Botticelli was drunk, in truth, he’d been drunk for years.

Scott Pelley: Did you love drinking?

Michael Botticelli: I would say that I probably had an unhealthy love affair with drinking. You know, I grew up as this kind of insecure kid, you know, kind of making my way. And, you know, drinking took all of that away, you know? People drink and do drugs for a reason. ‘Cause it makes them feel good, you know — until it doesn’t anymore.

Scott Pelley: Is it true that after the accident you woke up handcuffed to a gurney?

Michael Botticelli: I did. I did. And, you know, you think to yourself, “how did I get to this point, you know, in my life?”

That point included imminent eviction from his apartment because the booze had washed away all the money.

Read More or please comment below.

Drug and alcohol testing centers throughout the entire United States Accredited Drug Testing Inc. is available to answer all of your drug and alcohol testing questions and needs. For more information contact:

Brandon Rains
Director Of Online Marketing
Brandon@accredtiteddrugtesting.com
https://accrediteddrugtesting.net
(800) 221-4291
Accredited Drug Testing Inc
Health Screening USA Inc

 

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Marijuana use changes brain’s reward system overtime

June 9 2016

Marijuana use changes brain's reward system overtime

Researchers found that individuals who were long-term marijuana users had increased activity in certain areas of the brain associated with reward when presented with marijuana-associated cuesMarijuana use changes brain’s reward system overtime , compared with when they were presented with fruit-associated cues.

Study co-author Dr. Francesca Filbey, of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, and colleagues publish their findings in the journal Human Brain Mapping.

Though marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in America, with around 22.2 million users in the past month, an increasing number of states are legalizing its use for recreational or medical purposes.

However, despite this increase in marijuana legalization, Dr. Filbey and colleagues note that there is limited information on how the drug might lead to problematic use.

While only a small number of studies have investigated how marijuana use impacts the neural circuits of the brain to trigger cravings for the drug, some of these studies have suggested that the mesocorticolimbic reward system is involved.

This system incorporates several brain regions that release dopamine – a neurotransmitter that regulates the reward and pleasure centers – in response to certain cues.

Marijuana use disrupts mesocorticolimbic reward system
To further investigate how marijuana use might affect the mesocorticolimbic reward system, the team enrolled 59 daily, long-term marijuana users – who had used the drug for an average of 12 years – alongside 70 non-users.

Fast facts about marijuana
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main active ingredient in marijuana
In 2011, there were almost 456,000 drug-related emergency department visits in the U.S. in which marijuana use was involved
Altered senses, change in mood, impaired body movement, and problems with thinking and memory are just some of the effects of marijuana use.
Learn more about marijuana
Both groups were presented with visual cues. These included marijuana-associated images, such as a joint, bong, or pipe, and self-selected images of preferred fruits, such as a banana, an apple, or grapes.

The researchers explain that fruit is a natural reward cue that is “inherently salient and represented in the brain’s reward system.”

During the stimuli task, the researchers assessed the participants’ brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The team found that long-term marijuana users showed greater activity in the mesocorticolimbic reward pathways of the brain when they were presented with marijuana-associated cues than when they were shown images of preferred fruits.

Specifically, in response to marijuana-associated cues, long-term users had greater brain activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, striatum, anterior cingulate gyrus, precuneus, and the ventral tegmental area (VTA).

The researchers also found that the greater the interference of natural reward pathways in response to marijuana cues, the more problems that were experienced as a result of marijuana use, such as family problems.

With drug and alcohol testing centers throughout the entire United States, Accredited Drug Testing Inc. is available to answer all of your drug and alcohol testing questions and needs. For more information contact:

Brandon Rains
Director Of Online Marketing
Brandon@accredtiteddrugtesting.com
https://accrediteddrugtesting.net
(800) 221-4291
Accredited Drug Testing Inc
Health Screening USA Inc

 

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Buy and Sell Drugs Online “Silk Road” Founder Gets 8 Years

June 7 2016

Buy and Sell Drugs Online "Silk Road" Founder Gets 8 Years

One of the masterminds behind the digital black market website Silk Road 2.0 was sentenced June 3 to eight years in prison, following a multiagency probe that included U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Brian Farrell, 27, of Bellevue, was arrested in January 2015 for conspiracy to distribute heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine following a probe by the Seattle-Tacoma Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST Seattle), which includes HSI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington prosecuted the case.

Farrell, who used the moniker “DoctorClu” on the Silk Road 2.0 site, originally came to the attention of HSI special agents in July 2014 for his involvement in site activities. According to investigators, Farrell was one of the small staff of online administrators and forum moderators who assisted the alleged site owner with the day-to-day operation of the website.

“The dark web is not the safe haven some think,” said U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes. “This sentence should send a clear message to those who peddle illegal drugs via the dark web: you will be caught, prosecuted and face serious penalties.”

Silk Road 2.0 was a hidden website designed to enable its users to buy and sell illegal drugs and other unlawful goods and services anonymously and beyond the reach of law enforcement. As part of the staff, Farrell was involved in activities such as approving new staff and vendors for the website and organizing a denial of service attack on a competitor.

When a search warrant was served at Farrell’s Bellevue home, agents seized $35,000 in cash as well as silver bullion and various types of drug paraphernalia.

Since its launch in November 2013, Silk Road 2.0 was used by thousands of drug dealers and other vendors to distribute hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs and other illicit goods and services to buyers throughout the world, as well as to launder millions of dollars generated by these unlawful transactions. As of September 2014, Silk Road 2.0 was generating sales of approximately $8 million per month and had approximately 150,000 active users.

 

With drug and alcohol testing centers throughout the entire United States, Accredited Drug Testing Inc. is available to answer all of your drug and alcohol testing questions and needs. For more information contact:

Brandon Rains
Director Of Online Marketing
Brandon@accredtiteddrugtesting.com
https://accrediteddrugtesting.net
(800) 221-4291
Accredited Drug Testing Inc
Health Screening USA Inc

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New FRA Regulations Expand Drug and Alcohol Testing

June 2 2016

New FRA Regulations Expand Drug and Alcohol Testing

The U.S Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced that it has two final rules to better protect railroad employees working on and off the tracks.

The first rule amends the already existing roadway worker protection regulation. The second revises the FRA’s existing alcohol and drug testing regulations, to now cover maintenance of way employees.

“Clear communication, multiple layers of safety and a rigorous alcohol and drug testing policy are critical to keep workers along and near tracks—and ultimately passengers and train crews—out of harm’s way,” said U.S. Transportation secretary Anthony Foxx. “These are common sense rules that will help make our railroads safer.”

The roadway worker protection final rule amendments will: (1) resolve different interpretations that have emerged since the rule went into effect nearly 20 years ago; (2) implement FRA’s railroad safety advisory committee’s  consensus recommendations; (3) codify certain FRA technical bulletins; (4) codify a fast act mandate by adopting new requirements governing redundant signal protections; (5) address the safe movement of roadway maintenance machinery over signalized non-controlled track (not under a dispatcher’s control); and (6) amend certain qualification requirements for roadway workers.

“These new rules add another layer of protection for workers who work along and near railroad tracks and will help us reduce preventable worker injuries and fatalities,” said FRA administrator Sarah E. Feinberg.

“Whether you are an engineer, conductor or someone working alongside the tracks, safety requires alertness. any reduction in awareness caused by drugs or alcohol use can often be the difference between life and death,” Feinberg added.

With drug and alcohol testing centers throughout the entire United States, Accredited Drug Testing Inc. is available to answer all of your drug and alcohol testing questions and needs. For more information contact:

Andrew Gormally
Marketing/Industry Relations Assistant
Andrew@accredtiteddrugtesting.com
http://healthscreeningsusa.com
(800) 221-4291
Accredited Drug Testing Inc
Health Screening USA Inc

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Study Shows Party Never Stops for Fraternity Brothers

May 23 2016

Study Shows Party Never Stops for Fraternity Brothers

Fraternities are generally shown in films doing crazy stunts, and throwing massive parties. In 2014, some 1,800 college students died from drinking-related causes, drunk students perpetrated 696,000 assaults and close to 100,000 students were sexually assaulted or raped in incidents involving alcohol, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s rough estimate.

Not all events involved college fraternities, but because brothers are more likely to drink more heavily than their peers, the fraternal enthusiasm for drinking is a prime target for intervention. New research indicates these interventions were not as successful with members of Greek organizations to their nonaffiliated counterparts.

According to a review representing more than 20 years of research recently published in the American Psychological Association’s Health Psychology journal, fraternities seem to resist alcohol education and lessons from peer-mediated groups.

“Stronger interventions may need to be developed for student members of Greek letter organizations,” said Lori A. J. Scott-Sheldon, a Brown University psychologist and author of the report.

It is possible that interventions do have effects not captured in the review, due to a phenomenon psychologists call the sleeper effect, in which an argument does not lead to immediate change, but proves to be persuasive in the long run.

“Basically kids can be very smart, but ignorant about alcohol as a drug,” University of Pennsylvania addiction expert Charles O’Brien told NBC News in a recent interview. “It’s really ridiculous. Officials say, ‘alcohol and drugs.’ Alcohol is a drug just as much as cocaine.” O’Brien said that the University of Pennsylvania now has full-time staff who monitor alcohol consumption on campus, which has helped curb heavy drinking at the school.

With drug and alcohol testing centers throughout the entire United States, Accredited Drug Testing Inc. is available to answer all of your drug and alcohol testing questions and needs. For more information contact:

Andrew Gormally
Marketing/Industry Relations Assistant
Andrew@accredtiteddrugtesting.com
http://accrediteddrugtesting.net/
(800) 221-4291
Accredited Drug Testing Inc
Health Screening USA Inc