Category: Testing

  • The Truth About Cannabis

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    GuidaBrown
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    My sister K. and I used to think that guys from our days in high school could attribute any significant hair loss they’d suffered over the years to their use of THC while in high school and beyond. There’s not yet a strong correlation or body of evidence, but who knows…maybe we’re on to something.…

  • We Can’t Treat It If We Don’t Test For It

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    GuidaBrown
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    The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), is designed to “address the needs of infants born with and identified as being affected by substance abuse or withdrawal symptoms resulting from prenatal drug exposure, or a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.” The Act is an effort to, in part, address the health and substance use…

  • Weed in the NBA

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    GuidaBrown
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    Big news before 4/20 was that the new NBA collective-bargaining contract will not require testing for THC. This new contract comes on the heels of the NBA having temporarily suspended testing of THC over the last three seasons, in part as a response to the COVID pandemic. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has gone on record…

  • Gabapentin: A New Way to Die

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    GuidaBrown
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    In 2012, at the height of the opioid epidemic in this country, the US had 95% of the hydrocodone prescriptions in the world, despite having only 5% of the world’s population. The shocking fact that was thrown around was that “health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for opioid pain medication, enough for every adult…

  • Helping the Tiniest Victims

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    GuidaBrown
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    The tiniest victims of the opioid crisis are the babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), and, specifically, neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS). Overall in the US, the number of babies born with NAS is considered to be 6.7 per 1,000. However, those numbers increase based on different factors: American Indian/Alaska Natives have babies with…

  • The “Marty Mann Test for Alcoholism”

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    GuidaBrown
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    I recently watched a TikTok from jennabobenna9 who BRILLIANTLY said, “It’s not the number; it’s the fact that you’re doing the math in the first place. That’s a red flag,” explaining to viewers that the number of drinks or sips (or, if I may, lines or hits or pills) doesn’t matter. What matters is if…

  • We Can’t Incarcerate Nor IGNORE Our Way Out

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    GuidaBrown
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    To be clear, addiction is a chronic, progressive, lethal brain disease. We don’t criminalize other diseases by virtue of having the disease. That is, if someone with type 2 diabetes is under supervision through the criminal justice system for a crime, he doesn’t get sanctioned for having a diabetic episode – because society recognizes that…

  • Give This a Listen!

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    GuidaBrown
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    It is common practice for medical professionals to run tests to determine the cause and severity of a patient’s condition. Guida Brown talks about why that should also be the case when it comes to persons with Substance Use Disorders. Guida is a Community Relations Consultant with United States Drug Testing Laboratories. She is also…

  • Alcohol and Other Drug Testing: No Room for Gotchas

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    GuidaBrown
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    In continuing the theme of looking at addiction as the chronic, progressive, lethal disease that professionals say they believe it is, the question should be posed: why do we spring tests on people suffering from a disease? My husband recently underwent heart surgery, and when the doctors need him to have lab tests, they make…

  • You Can’t Fail This Test

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    GuidaBrown
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    “How’d you do on the English test?” “I failed it.” “How’d you do on that glucose test?” “Yeah…I failed that one, too.” Testing is used to assess and monitor progression of disease and to thereby monitor recovery, just as with cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Doctors order a multitude of tests to determine what sort…