Drug Testing in the Juvenile Justice System

Drug Testing in the Juvenile Justice System
OJJDP has funded several APPA projects to investigate innovative and appropriate methods to identify and intervene with substance-abusing youth. These projects included drug recognition techniques, drug identification and testing, and, most recently, comprehensive intersystem service delivery. The latter emphasized collaboration among juvenile justice, substance abuse treatment, and other youth-serving systems and provided training in intervention skills for juvenile probation and parole line officers.
The first two APPA projects funded by OJJDP designed and delivered training and technical assistance to help juvenile justice agencies initiate or enhance programs to identify, screen, and test juveniles for illicit drug use. Three methods were subsequently recommended for use within the juvenile justice system: assessment instruments and techniques, drug recognition techniques, and chemical testing. Combining all three methods is considered the best approach.
Assessment Instruments and Techniques
Assessment instruments and techniques can be used to distinguish alcohol and drug users from nonusers, make initial treatment recommendations, make case management decisions, and provide information for a continuum of services.
Assessment may occur at any stage in a youth's movement through the juvenile justice system. Coordination of assessment strategies and the sharing of information is vital to ensure that youth receive the continuum of services they need. Once collected, assessment information must be integrated, evaluated, and used appropriately in decisionmaking regarding individual youth.
Assessment procedures allow for the gathering of information about alcohol or drug use other than current or recent use, which is detectable through drug recognition techniques or urinalysis. Such long-term data can be used to help develop an effective intervention plan. Many assessment approaches also gather information about the social context of a youth's substance abuse problems -- when, where, why, and with whom youth use alcohol and other drugs can be important information to have for case management purposes.
Drug Recognition Techniques
Drug recognition techniques were developed initially to help law enforcement officers identify motorists in traffic-arrest situations who were impaired by alcohol or other drug use. These techniques were later adapted by the Orange County (California) Probation Department and applied in community corrections settings. The department used its findings to expand the period for detecting illicit drug use. Drug recognition techniques offer a systematic and standardized process for evaluating observable physical reactions to specific types of drugs. There are three key elements in the process:

Verifying that the person's physical responses deviate from normal.
Ruling out a non-drug-related cause of the deviation.
Using diagnostic procedures to determine the category or combination of substances that is likely to cause the impairment (e.g., assessing pupil constriction or dilation).

Drug recognition techniques identify the category of chemical substances ingested (e.g., central nervous system depressants, cannabis, central nervous system stimulants), but they cannot identify specific drugs within each category. However, a skilled practitioner can determine with a high degree of accuracy whether a youth is currently under the influence of a substance or has used a particular drug or combination of drugs for up to 72 hours after ingestion, although the amount of the substance consumed cannot be determined.
Initial training for staff to become proficient in using drug recognition techniques can be costly, but once staff are trained, ongoing expenses are minimal. The techniques are cost efficient because they can often screen out youth who do not show symptoms of current or recent substance use, thereby eliminating the need for costly urinalysis. For example, if the symptoms for several classes of drugs are not apparent, it is unlikely that the quantity of these substances or their metabolites remaining in the body is sufficient for urinalysis to produce a positive finding. (Marijuana and phencyclidine (PCP) may be exceptions, because low levels sometimes may be detected through urinalysis for as long as 3-4 weeks after ingestion.)
Drug recognition techniques allow the trained practitioner to detect physical symptoms of drug use, such as:

Changes in the eyes, including dilation or constriction of pupils, reactions to light, and characteristics related to eye movements.
Injection sites.
Performance on motor tests, such as walking a straight line, standing on one leg, and placing a finger on the nose.
Movements that indicate muscle rigidity.

Drug recognition techniques offer several advantages. They provide immediate results with which to confront youth if indication of substance use is present, and they are minimally intrusive as compared with the collection of body fluids required for urinalysis. Moreover, the process is systematic and standardized, reducing the possibility of bias or error by trained staff.
Not all categories of drugs are equally detectable using drug recognition techniques, and the specific drugs ingested cannot be determined. Therefore, use of these techniques alone may not conclusively determine the exact substance used or detect the effects of illicit drugs that have minimal influence on the physical responses measured.
Chemical Testing
The most physically intrusive and most expensive of the three drug identification methods described herein is chemical testing. It is also the most accurate. Of several scientific methods available -- including urinalysis, blood analysis, hair analysis, and saliva tests -- saliva and breath analysis for alcohol and urinalysis for drugs other than alcohol are the methods currently recommended, because they are reliable and relatively inexpensive compared with other methods of chemical testing. Because alcohol evaporates quickly from urine, urinalysis is generally not used to detect alcohol.
Immunoassays detect chemical reactions between antibodies and a drug or drug metabolite. They are generally used for initial tests and are considered reliable for detecting the presence of illicit drugs in a person's system. A positive result may be confirmed via a statement of admission by the youth, repetition of the test, or performance of a second test using a different methodology. For legal proceedings, the third option is preferred, especially where a youth's freedom is at stake. Chromatographic methods of urinalysis separate the drug or its metabolite from the urine and can quantify the amount of a substance that is present. These tests are often used to confirm positive results of initial tests and can provide a quantitative measure of the level of drugs in an individual's system.
Because different drugs remain in the body for varying lengths of time (ranging from a few hours to several days), it is helpful, for purposes of retesting, to know the youth's drug(s) of choice. Random rather than scheduled retesting is generally recommended, as some youth may learn to schedule their substance use to circumvent scheduled testing. In addition, some youth may attempt to taint a urine sample by ingesting something before giving the sample or by adding something to the specimen after it leaves the body. Therefore, urination should always be observed by a same-sex staff member.
A record must be kept of the location of the urine specimen and test results at all times, and this record must note each person who has handled either the specimen or the test results. The record should document specimen collection, handling, storage, transportation, and testing and the dissemination of results. All specimens, supplies, and equipment should be kept in a locked storage area.

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