Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Operation Medicine Cabinet: A New Way to Combat Rx Drug Abuse

This Saturday police departments around New Jersey are opening their doors as part of Operation Medicine Cabinet, a program in which people can drop off unwanted or expired prescription drugs. The program is being done in conjunction with the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey.

Hopefully this program will help solve two problems: the problems of prescription drug abuse (which you can determine with a home drug test) and the pollution problem caused by dumping prescription drugs. The Philadelphia Inquirer gives us some details on the latter: traces of over 56 prescription drugs and/or byproducts were discovered in the city's tap water last year.

Operation Medicine Cabinet has a great website. Click around for some interesting facts, for example that between 1995 and 2005 treatment admissions for prescription drug abuse increased by 300 percent! The two main categories of abused drugs are tranquilizers like benzodiazepines and narcotic painkillers. The first you can test for by purchasing a reliable Xanax Drug Test. This test will give you results for any drug in the benzodiazepine family, Xanax simply being one of the best known of those drugs. Meanwhile our Vicodin Test will target any oxycodone based painkiller, and also hydrocodone (Vicodin). This is a good home drug test for parents to consider if they are worried about drug abuse, since nearly 10% of 12th graders nationally have abused it.

One of the primary reasons prescription drug abuse has spread, especially among teens, is that the drugs are so easy to come by. 70% of abusers obtain their painkillers from bottles prescribed to relatives or acquaintances. The medicine cabinet is the source - the drug dealer if you will.

You may not always be able to tell if someone has taken a pill from your prescription - but you can with a home drug test for prescription drugs - identify the drug you want to test for on our page and choose from our selection of tests.

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Monday, November 9, 2009

Alcohol Tests : Play Your Part In Preventing Drinking and Driving

Most people are familiar with MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) which tirelessly works to end DUIs and drinking fatalities. They are often a great clearinghouse for news and information, but today we have the scoop on people and organizations who have stepped up to fight drunk driving. As suppliers of alcohol tests that tell you your blood alcohol content, we applaud them.

The first story stops drunk driving not through use of an alcohol test, but through an emotional test. Check out the video below to learn more:


44,000 people have called this number, which sends a prank call from the point of view of someone who would bail a jailed drinker out to someone you think might be making a bad decision about drinking and driving. Although the concept is generally humorous, the dialogue is a refresher for the person called. Best of all Utah police believe the approach to be working.

The nice thing about the disposable home alcohol test is that you can keep it close on hand, just as you do your phone. When you follow the directions (either saturating a pad with saliva as in the AlcoScreen alcohol test or blowing into a tube as in the Breathscan test). This is another useful and accurate way of determining whether driving is a good idea.

Another promising recent news story on drinking and driving comes out of Buffalo, where recently two alert people spent their weekend spotting risky behavior in the making. The story, in the Buffalo News, describes one man who stopped on the roadside to help a man and his car out of a ditch, only to see the man run away. The man refused an alcohol test and was later charged with a DUI. Another citizen call-in led to a DWI arrest nearby the next night. Making these calls can be very important. Every once in a while, a drunk driver will realize that very thing too: witness a Wisconsin woman who called herself in as a drunk driver a week ago (AP).

Fighting drunken driving cannot be done in any one way alone, but disposable alcohol tests are a great way to start. They can tell you if someone is at a DUI level, has gone past zero tolerance, or even if someone's blood alcohol content is at .30%. You can pick up an affordable alcohol test from Home Health Testing today.

Monday, November 2, 2009

OxyContin Pill Won't Eliminate Need for OxyContin Test

As covered elsewhere on this blog, OxyContin is an extremely dangerous drug when abused - 11 people die a day in Florida from prescription drug overdoses - hence the existence of an OxyContin Test. The producers of Oxy (as it is sometimes called), Purdue Pharma, have to their credit taken note, and come out with a new version of the pill. But with no guarantee that it cannot be manipulated for abuse, it means days without an OxyContin Test are not behind us.

As reported by the AP (click to read on SFgate.com), the improvement to the drug is a new plastic coating, designed to make it harder to inject or snort. The Food and Drug Administration is skeptical but sees that there could be some advantage. At this point, with prescription drug abuse the primary culprit behind drug overdoses nationwide, something has to be done (please note: the OxyContin Drug Test is FDA Approved). The FDA has abandoned public service advisories and is now pressuring companies to come out with safer products.

This is a certainly a good development, but it remains to be seen how it will affect the patterns of OxyContin abuse, and if it actually comes out, as it has not yet been approved. Perhaps it will be most helpful for kids, as teenagers in particular are experimenting with prescription drugs. Reuters has even reported that OxyContin may be more addictive for teens than adults. The increased popularity of the drug and its harmful effects is one of the reason parents OxyContin Test their children.

It is a shame that a drug designed to help people with pain has had such disastrous effects on people's lives. The reason there is a home drug test for Oxycontin is that the medication is indeed a drug, and a dangerous one. It is not to be taken lightly. If you think that an OxyContin Test could be helpful for you or a loved one, you can purchase one at Home Health Testing.