Drug & Alcohol Testing Industry News
Saskatchewan provides testing kits at safe consumption sites
Earlier in August, Saskatchewan's two safe supervised consumption sites received rapid testing kits from the provincial government in order to detect the presence of potentially dangerous adulterants. With the new equipment and training, the staff at the consumption...
Dangerous ‘benzo-dope’ replacing fentanyl on the streets
Over the last year, there have been numerous reports of benzodiazepine-adulterated opioids (also referred to as “benzo-dope”) in Canada’s illicit drug supply. According to new reports, benzodiazepines have been detected in as many as 60% of overdose deaths in British...
‘Unknown substance’ causes overdose deaths in Nova Scotia
Earlier in July, Nova Scotia Health released an alert on social media notifying the public that a life-threatening substance has been circulating in the local drug supply. In his interview with CBC News, Matt Bonn, the program coordinator for the Canadian Association...
Smartphones to become overdose prevention tools
In a recent interview with CBC News, Dr. Dan Werb, an epidemiologist and executive director of the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation in Toronto discussed a new portable drug-testing device called DoseCheck that could serve as an overdose prevention tool. Together with...
BCSSA initiates study into substance use in construction industry
In July of this year, the board of directors of the BC Construction Safety Alliance (BCCSA) approved a project to examine the impact of alcohol and other drugs (AOD) on the organization’s members across British Columbia. According to the executive director Mike...
Drug Checking Technology Challenge winner announced
The ongoing growing opioid crisis has been declared a public health emergency in Canada. Due to increasing toxicity of the illegal drug supply, there have been higher rates of overdoses since the onset of COVID-19. In addition, it has been demonstrated that most drug...
Extreme opioids hit Toronto streets causing overdose deaths
In recent months, powerful synthetic opioids have been discovered in Toronto’s street drug supply, resulting in a spike in overdose deaths. According to the results of the investigation carried out by the Toronto Star and Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB), the...
Court ruling limits drug testing at Iowa warehouses
On June 25, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that employers cannot subject all warehouse employees to random drug testing by designating them as having safety-sensitive jobs. The court ruled that instead of simply considering the employees’ workplace, companies must also...
Korean school teachers angered by mandatory drug testing
Following a revision to the Primary and Secondary Education Act which was passed at the Korean National Assembly in December 2020, 20,000 teachers at Korean public schools are expected to undergo the tetrabromophenolphthalein ethyl ester (TBPE) drug test. The TBPE...