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- NEW YORK (Reuters
Health) - Psychemedics Corporation, a drug testing company based in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, has added Ecstasy to the list of commonly abused drugs it
routinely screens for in hair samples submitted by corporate and individual
clients, the company announced Tuesday.
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- The company currently tests human hair samples to check
for several compounds, including cocaine, marijuana, opiates, methamphetamine,
and PCP that have been used within the last 90 days. The company decided
to add Ecstasy (methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA) to its standard
battery of tests in response to repeated requests from its clients, according
to the company's CEO and president, Raymond C. Kubacki, Jr.
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- ``We got requests from parents, schools and individuals''
to test for Ecstasy, he said in an interview with Reuters Health.
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- The company will also offer Ecstasy testing in its PDT-90
Hair Test, which is available for purchase in drug stores.
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- The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration estimates that some 3.5 million Americans had tried Ecstasy
at least once since 1998. The vast majority of those users fall into the
18- to 34-year-old age group, according to the agency's annual National
Household Survey on Drug Abuse.
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- ``The main benefit (of routine testing) is going to be
in deterrence,'' Kubacki said.
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- Screening hair allows for detection of drug use going
back as long as 90 days before the test. The method has been offered as
an alternative to urine testing, which can be vulnerable to sabotage and
which can only detect drug use that took place within several days of the
test for some substances, Kubacki noted.
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- Most of Psychemedic's business comes from providing laboratory
testing of hair samples to some 1,700 corporations across the country.
It also delivers testing for about 90 private schools in the US. Less than
10% of the company's testing is conducted for parents who wish to test
their children for drugs.
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- Ecstasy stimulates the brain to release large amounts
of serotonin, causing a lasting sense of euphoria. The drug has been increasing
in popularity chiefly among young people over the last 5 years, with most
of its use proliferating in dance clubs.
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- The long-term effects of Ecstasy use remain largely unknown,
but some research has begun to suggest that repeated exposure to the drug
might cause memory loss.
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