DOT Medical Examiner

Although drug and alcohol testing is not always required for our CDL examinees during the course of a regular DOT physical, employees in safety-sensitive positions are subject to drug and alcohol testing in the following situations: 

• Pre-employment
• Reasonable Suspicion/ Cause
• Random
• Return-to-duty
• Follow-up
• Post-Accident                            

What drugs does DOT test for:                                  

• Marijuana metabolites/THC
• Cocaine metabolites
• Amphetamines( including methamphetamine)
• Opiates(including heroin, codeine, morphine)
• Phencyclidine(PCP)

 For more information please visit the DOT website of the Office of Drug and Alcohol Compliance at www.dot.gov/ost/dapc. 

What to do when you are notified to submit to a drug test?

You will report immediately to our collection site.  A trained DOT Urine Specimen Collector will have you remove unecessary outer clothing( i.e. hat, coats, jacket etc.), have you empty your pockets, wash your hands and select a sealed kit.  You will be asked to provide 45ml+ of urine and watch the collector check temperature, pour urine into 2 bottles and seal bottles A & B.  You will initial seal on bottles and sign the paperwork.  The urine will then be sent to the laboratory for analysis.

Lab results that are negative will be reported by the Medical Review Officer (MRO) to your employer as such.  If results are not negative, the MRO will review the lab results and determine if there are any legitimate medical reasons for a positive, adulterated, or substituted result.  As part of this process, the MRO will interview you, go over your medical records and may require that you be examined by an approved MRO physician.  Once your results are verified by the MRO it will be reported to you employer as negative, positive, refusal, or cancelled.  Remember, as part of your employee rights you will have 72 hours from the MRO interview to request the second bottle(bottle B) to be tested by another certified lab.

Other Drug Testing Available

non-DOT and personal self-screening:

Whether you are a private sector employer or business  who utilize work place drug screening to protect yourself when hiring, or whether you are an individual who wants to self drug screen to know what an employer administered screening would show, you have the following option:

A Non- Dot 5 panel and expanded 10 panel drug test may be performed  to screen for various drugs .

The 5 panel drug test will test for the 5 drugs listed  above which includes:  (Amphetamine, Cocaine,  Marijuana, PCP, and Opiates).

The expanded 10 panel test in addition to the 5 drugs listed above will also screen for Barbiturates(Bar), Benzodiazepines(BZO), Methadone(MTD), Oxycodone(OXY), and Propoxyphene(PPX).  

These screening test can be performed in two ways: 

1. As an In-Lab test where the urine is collected and sent to the laboratory for drug screening.
2. As as an on-site test, quick test or otherwise known as a  rapid tests or Point of Collection Test. Whatever terminology you use the advantage is that you get an immediate or instant result right in the office. 

A positive result in either of the two screening tests above can be confirmed in the laboratory by GC/MS (Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry).  Confirmatory testing is important for employers in making emplyoment related decisions and in the case of the individual self screener, it  may be important in legal matters involving courts, or drug rehabilitation. 

Beath alcohol Testing is performed here with the Lifeloc 6.0 Evidential Breath Tester