INDUSTRY NEWS
Department of Transportation proposes amendments to drug testing program
The Department of Transportation (DOT) published a notice in the Federal Register proposing to amend its drug testing program to add four opioids to its drug testing panel.
The current five-panel test used by the DOT would remain the same but the name of the opiates panel would be changed to “opioids” and would include testing for the following syntehic opioids:
- Hydrocodone;
- Hydromorphone;
- Oxymorphone; and
- Oxycodone
The DOT also proposed adding methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) as an initial test analyte and removing methylenedioxyethylamphetamine (MDEA) as a confirmatory test analyte.
The notice of proposed rulemaking was included in the Federal Register and included several other proposals to amend to the DOT’s current drug testing program. That notice can be found here.
According to the law firm Jackson Lewis, the proposed revision of the drug testing panel is intended to harmonize with the revised Mandatory Guidelines established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for federal drug testing programs for urine testing, issued on Jan. 23, 2017. DHHS has set an effective date of Oct. 1, 2017, for compliance with its final revision.
Source: Jackson Lewis PC, 1/23/2017