5 Things
Family Lawyers Should Know About Drug Testing By MILES MASON, SR., Miles Mason Family Law Group and LAURA VALADE, principal of Valade Law PLC
*Note: This article has been edited for length, to read it in full, visit memphisbar.org/news-publications/memphis-lawyer-magazine
1. Family Lawyers Should Know Drug Test Statistics
• Nearly 68% of all adult illegal drug users are employed, as are most adult binge drinkers and heavy alcohol users. • 1 out of every 6 workers has a drug problem. • Absenteeism among workers who abuse drugs is 16 times higher. • Workers who abuse drugs are 1/3 less productive. • Among children: »» 7% of 8th graders and 35.1% of 12th graders used marijuana/hashish in the past year. »» 8% of 12th graders used Vicodin for nonmedical purposes in 2014. »» 8% of 12th graders reported using synthetic cannabinoids. If one of every six workers has a drug problem and over 35% of high school seniors use marijuana or hashish, then every family lawyer must be prepared to handle drug-related issues and drug testing during client representation.
2. Family Lawyers Should Know Why Drug Tests Are Used in Court
Grounds for Divorce: In Tennessee divorce law, abuse of narcotic drugs is grounds for divorce. Allegations in the Complaint of a spouse’s substance abuse may necessitate drug testing to prove or disprove those allegations. Grandparent Visitation: When the grandparent with an abuse problem seeks visitation, the court may order supervised visitation, drug testing, or both. Child Custody Proceedings: A parent’s drug abuse is a child custody factor for the court to consider in determining legal decision making authority, parenting time, and primary residential parent status. The court may consider drug addiction or abuse as creating an unsafe environment. 14
Children are affected by their parents’ divorce and may seek refuge in drugs or alcohol. Clients should be prepared for this possibility and potential need for counseling coupled with drug testing.
3. F amily Lawyers Should Know Drug Test Experts
Finding the right expert witness may be crucial to the client’s case. In the courts of Shelby County and elsewhere, Kelly Dobbins (MA, R-CPCT, BAT), president of Mid-South Drug Testing, Inc. is well known as one such expert witness. Know which drug tests are preferable in certain situations. Saliva collection may be best for a child, whereas urine collection may be best for an adult. Lawyers should also know drug detection tests, methodology, and length of time a particular drug will test positive. Know the facility’s capacity. Learn enough about the categories of drugs to ensure the facility can test for an array of drugs. Know the limitations of each test. Hair testing can provide a 90-day detection window. The amount of hair needed can vary: “If you’re doing a five panel drug test, or if you’re testing for 16 drugs, it’s going to make a difference.” Test labs “don’t use all the hair on the initial screen,” Dobbins notes. “Understand that whatever they’ve tested is destroyed in the process, so if they have a positive sample they will keep that hair on file for a year.” “Urine testing is still the cheapest,” she says. Urine tests can be used to detect several drugs. Some tests can detect multiple, others detect only one or two. It’s very technical, which is why every family lawyer needs to know someone in drug testing. And new drugs require new tests. “Every time you turn around there’s a new drug,” she says. “It takes us a couple years to catch up to the new drug.” Synthetics aren’t the same as the parent drug. For example, “synthetic cannabinoids don’t test positive for THC at all.” “Saliva is the newest methodology,” continues Dobbins, and is “your shortest window of detection.”