School Drug Abuse & Testing

Bus driver accused of Drug Driving

WHAKATANE – A Bay of Plenty school bus driver has been stood down after allegedly driving under the influence of drugs.

A spokesman for bus operator Uzabus confirmed that the woman was no longer driving pending investigations by the company and the police.

Kawerau police stopped the mid-sized school bus at Manawahe, northwest of Whakatane, on Wednesday afternoon, arresting the driver.

Senior Constable Brian Parker said the woman underwent a drug-impaired driving test, which she failed. She was then required to provide a blood sample.

He said it could take three weeks or more for the blood test results to come back, and at that time police would decide whether to charge her.

A witness said the scene was “bedlam” with four police cars and children in tears.

About 18 children were on the bus at the time and alternative transport was arranged to get them home.

The incident happened just before 3.30pm after the bus had dropped children from Manawahe School home and had picked up students from Matata.

Via: nzherald.co.nz

Chief orders drug lab closed permanently

The San Francisco Police Department will close its scandal-marred drug lab permanently and use outside testers to analyze narcotics evidence, Police Chief George Gascón said Wednesday.

That will enable the Police Department’s crime lab at Hunters Point to focus on testing of weapons and DNA evidence, areas that are “quite frankly of greater importance to our crime-fighting efforts,” Gascón said.

The department shut down the drug analysis section of the crime lab March 9 amid an investigation into whether now-retired technician Deborah Madden skimmed powdered cocaine and OxyContin evidence.

Prosecutors have dismissed more than 600 cases since the scandal broke. Madden, 60, has not been charged with a crime in connection with the case, but a police investigation is under way.

Police supervision

Gascón said the drug testing done by private labs would be conducted under “our supervision.” The Police Department still would be responsible for ensuring that the lab work meets legal standards.

The drug analysis section was already a headache for the Police Department even before the narcotics-skimming scandal became known. It was down to two civilian police technicians before Madden left in December, and outside auditors found that the section was not properly supervised, evidence was not well secured and problems with its scales were not being documented correctly.

The chief said an outside lab can perform testing for about $100 per sample. By having police officers themselves do some preliminary tests, Gascón believes that the 14,000 tests that the drug analysis section had performed annually an be cut to around 4,000 at outside labs.

Gascón said the preliminary tests that officers have already started doing are accepted by prosecutors to support the filing of charges.

Positive report

Gascón made the announcement at the same time he said a state audit of the DNA testing section of the crime lab found that it was “well-run,” with only some “relatively minor documentation issues.”

He said state auditors are still looking at the crime lab’s weapons section, which test-fires guns and examines ballistics evidence.

In addition to the outside drug testing, Gascón said independent labs will be brought in to cut the department’s backlog of DNA and firearms testing. Recently, a two-year delay in testing DNA evidence in the slaying of a transgender prostitute allowed a suspect to remain unidentified while he allegedly committed four more sexual assaults of transgender prostitutes.

Gascón said the department would not be able to get ahead of its workload without bringing in outside labs. He did not specify where the money to pay for the testing would come from.

Ultimately, Gascón said, the plan is to move the crime lab. Its small Hunters Point location was intended to be temporary, and the land is scheduled to be redeveloped.

Accreditation goal

With all the changes, the chief said he is confident that a national accreditation agency that audited the crime lab late last year will recertify it. Loss of certification could cut off some federal funding for the Police Department and give ammunition to defense attorneys in trials.

The lab is now running on a six-month extension of its five-year accreditation, which ran out in February.

The lab has kept its accreditation even though police officials failed to tell outside auditors about questions surrounding Madden’s behavior for more than two months, even as evidence mounted against her.

Via: sfgate.com

FDA inspectors found lax testing for contamination at J&J’s Tylenol production site

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ingredients used by Johnson & Johnson in some of the 40 varieties of children’s cold medicines recalled last week were contaminated with bacteria, according to a report by the Food and Drug Administration.

Agency officials said Tuesday none of the company’s finished products tested positive for the contaminants, though such testing is not definitive.

The FDA report, which was posted online, lists more than 20 manufacturing problems found at the McNeil Consumer Healthcare plant in Fort Washington, Pa., where the formulas were made. The recalled products include children and infant formulations of Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl.

FDA inspectors visited the plant in mid-April and wrapped up their inspection Friday. J&J issued its “voluntary” recall later that night.

Among other problems, FDA inspectors said the company did not have laboratory facilities to test drug ingredients and failed to follow up on customer complaints.

J&J did not investigate more than 46 complaints received in the last year about “black or dark specks” in Tylenol products, according to the FDA’s report.

Additionally, inspectors found some pieces of equipment covered with thick layers of dust, while others were held together with duct tape.

In a statement Tuesday, J&J called the problems cited by the FDA “unacceptable to us, and not indicative of how McNeil Consumer Healthcare intends to operate.” The health conglomerate, which is based in New Brunswick, N.J., said production at the plant won’t resume until the problems have been fixed.

The FDA reiterated that serious medical problems with the products are unlikely, but advised consumers to stop using the medicine as a precaution. Parents are instructed to use generic alternatives instead.

J&J’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit has said some of the recalled medicines may have a higher concentration of the active ingredient than listed on the bottle. Others may contain particles, while still others may contain inactive ingredients that do not meet testing requirements.

FDA leadership told reporters Tuesday that they first met with J&J in February to discuss manufacturing problems identified in a warning letter about another J&J plant. The agency decided to step up inspections of the company’s facilities based on those problems.
FDA officials said they are considering taking additional action against J&J, ranging from issuing more warning letters to pursuing criminal action.

Last week’s sweeping recall, which involved products sold in the U.S. and 11 other countries, is the latest quality issue to taint J&J’s over-the-counter medicine franchise. In January, the company recalled a line of adult Tylenol pain relievers due to complaints of a moldy smell associated with wooden pallets used to transport the drugs.

Via: fox4kc.com

SF police to shut down troubled drug testing lab

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco police said Wednesday they have decided to shut down their troubled drug testing lab and outsource the work.

The unit had been indefinitely shuttered since March 9, shortly after former lab technician Deborah Madden was accused of skimming cocaine evidence.

Prosecutors have dismissed more than 600 drug cases in the wake of the scandal. Madden has not been charged in the ongoing investigation.

Independent audits of the crime lab also found problems with mismanagement and understaffing.

Police drug-testing is currently being done by four outside labs.

Chief George Gascon said the decision to shut down the lab came after extensive discussions. The department will look for one outside lab to do the testing under police supervision, he said.

“We can certainly give the responsibility of the work to someone else, but we cannot give up the accountability,” Gascon said. “We will remain vigilant. We will still control that process.”

Gascon said drug testing was labor-intensive but could be contracted out at a reasonable price, though he didn’t know exactly how much the outside testing would cost.

Public Defender Jeff Adachi said closing the drug testing unit was only the first step toward restoring public trust.

“I am still concerned that our city will still not have the benefit of an independent crime lab,” Adachi said. “We need to examine the outside labs that the police department will rely upon.”

Assistant Chief Jeff Godown, who was put in charge of the lab in March, said the drug testing unit could possibly reopen in the near future.

Godown said outside drug testing could cost about $100 per test. Having police officers do some preliminary testing could limited the number of outside tests to less than 4,000 a year, he said, noting the police lab did about 14,000 tests a year when it was operating.

The crime lab was expected to continue conducting DNA and ballistics tests. Gascon said the department would explore moving the lab to another site

Gascon said a state audit of the crime lab’s DNA unit found only minor issues. The department intends to use outside labs to help reduce a backlog of DNA and firearms testing, he said.

“Today’s audit results do not resolve my lingering concerns about the crime lab’s DNA unit,” Adachi said. “Contamination and failure to document testing are serious problems that still exist.”

Police were criticized for their handling of a transgender prostitute’s death after a published report last fall said DNA taken from her body remained untested in the city crime lab for more than two years.

Via: signonsandiego.com

Nevada State Athletic Commission will not ‘fully’ implement USADA drug testing for Boxing

It appears the relationship between the USADA and the Nevada State Athletic Commission isn’t as blissful as it originally seemed. When the USADA first came on board to drug test Floyd Mayweather Jr and Shane Mosley, everyone seemed to be happy and eager to work with each other.

However, now that the fight is over, there doesn’t seem to be any hurry for the Nevada State Athletic Commission to adopt the USADA drug testing policies and procedures. In fact, the NSAC doesn’t even agree with all of USADA’s policies. Let’s examine further:

In an interview with the Grand Rapids Press, Kizer said that the NSAC appreciated what the USADA did and that they were open to ways of improving their drug testing procedures.”

The USADA was “purely supplemental and we appreciate that. We’ll “never close the door on adding to or improving our regulation.”

When speaking with KIzer today, he echoed the same sentiments “We always look for ways to improve our testing.” When I pressed further to see if the NSAC would adopt the USADA drug testing procedures, Kizer had the following response:

“While we do not agree with all of USADA’s policies, we will implement from their policies what we think can improve ours.”

So, for better or for worse, the NSAC doesn’t completely agree with the USADA’s drug testing policies.

Via: examiner.com

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