By Ashley Wiebe

Local drug test detects variety of drugs, but not level of impairment

Jan 25, 2018 | 3:20 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — With the legalization of marijuana on the minds of many, employers continue to wonder about what it could mean for their workers.

SureHire is an occupational testing facility, helping to make sure employees on job sites are fit for the required work.

“Most of our testing is for safety sensitive work in Alberta and across the prairies,” said Jason Sheehy, director of SureHire. “So the target groups typically are oil and gas, industrial construction, manufacturing, transport so long-haul truck drivers.

“Cannabis can stay in your body up to 30 days, it can even stay up to longer,” said Crista Herter, facility supervisor at SureHire. “It depends on if you’re a chronic user, how much you use, whether or not your body metabolizes it quicker than somebody else.”

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Herter took out the kit used to perform an oral fluid drug screen. It’s used to check for any indication of illegal drugs in a body.

The swab is rubbed on the insides of the cheeks and then held in place for several minutes, collecting saliva.

Once the swab is wet, it doesn’t take long for the results to show if there are drugs in a person’s system.

“Non-negative is if something does show up in their system,” she said. “Negative shows nothing at all.”

The sample can detect traces of methamphetamine, cocaine, THC and opioids.

If the test shows a non-negative result, companies will have the results sent to another lab, where it’s retested to show exactly what was detected.

“In safety sensitive work sites, the employer wants to ensure that they have mechanisms in place to reduce the amount of risk that there’s going to be injury or impairment on the job site,” Sheehy said.

“Occupational testing includes […] your drug and alcohol, it would include audio, visual, all those types of occupational testing, but we also have a very unique fitness testing component,” he added.

Using a urine sample is another option to test for drugs.

“Along with using drugs comes sleep deprivation, cloudy thinking, so you don’t want anybody in these positions where other peoples lives are at risk,” Herter said.

“For drug and alcohol, there’s existing standards in terms of how much of a substance an individual can have in their system before they’re considered at risk of impairment,” Sheehy added.

The tests won’t show how much of the substance is found but a second set of eyes from staff at the lab will be able to see if it’s prescription or recreational use.

Herter said all of the tests staff are trained in are meant as a preventative measure.

“It gives you a starting line, ‘okay, lets monitor our bodies and what’s going on with them in these work fields over the time so we can keep things working right’,” Herter said.