Recent developments in marijuana legislation and legalization has left many companies and individuals alike wondering whether drug free workplaces are required to test for marijuana. As marijuana laws change many people believe that it should not be lumped in with other drugs that are traditionally tested for such as meth, heroin and cocaine. The legalization of marijuana in some states is complicating workplace drug testing. In 1989, the Federal Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988 became law. This...

USA Today published Heroin is Back , a detailed story from Charlotte, NC to Maine to California, all seeing heroin spreading to the suburbs.  Concerned about a rise in heroin dependence in the detox ward, Carolinas Medical Center wanted to dig deeper in the data and found that their heroin patients came from the five best neighborhoods in the Charlotte area. Many Americans are becoming addicted to prescription painkillers and as they find it more difficult to either get the prescriptions...

Buprenorphine is used to treat opioid dependence and ease the withdrawl symptoms of drugs like heroin. Buprenorphine is marketed under the names Suboxone and Subutex and was approved by the FDA in 2002. The drug is closely regulated and doctors must be approved in order to prescribe it, in 2005 there were only 5,656 physicians certified to prescribe Suboxone for the treatment of addiction to opiates. The 2010 data is now available and there are now 18,582 certified physicians prescribing...

[caption id="attachment_1242" align="alignleft" width="300"] Home Drug Test at Walgreens[/caption] While it may be difficult to know where to look, you can now find home drug tests in most drug stores. The drug tests are typically found around other home tests or  "Health Monitors".  The drugstores offer multi panel drug tests that can test for four, six or twelve different drugs or a single test for Marijuana or Cocaine. Our recent survey of CVS, Walgreens and Walmart showed that a...

After a long stressful day at work you come home to cook dinner, feed the dog, do the dishes and then finally settle down to unwind by watching television. As you try to relax you are assaulted with commercials about depression with a soothing voice asking "Are you sad?" or "Are you tired?". There are days the answer is yes, but does that mean medication is necessary. Then the Abilify commercial informs you that 2 out of 3 people being treated for depression still have symptoms of depression,...

Oxycontin is the number one selling prescription pain pill sold in the USA with sales reaching $3 billion per year.  There are other forms of prescription opioids and all together their sales have quadrupled over the last decade.  The warning bells are sounding in our country that we have a prescription painkiller epidemic on our hands. In 1998, Purdue Pharma the maker of Oxy, made a marketing video that was shown to 15,000 doctors that claimed Oxy was less addictive than other...