Imagine in the not too distant future your job, college ID, drivers license, passport, gun permit, health insurance, etc., will depend on you passing a mandatory drug screening.
What is that you say? It could never happen in America.
It could happen sooner than you think if theย U.S. Preventative Services Task Forceย (USPSTF) has anything to say about it.
According to a recentย Los Angeles Timesย article, the USPSTF wants doctors to screen everyone for drug use.
“Questions about drug use should not only cover the possibility that a patient is taking illegal street drugs like cocaine or heroin, the task force said. They should also explore whether a patient might be sneaking pills from a family memberโs pain medication or getting a boost from stimulants prescribed for a child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.”
“The USPSTF recommends screening for illicit drug use in adults age 18 years or older,” according to its draft report.
Big Brother really wants to know if you are using illegal street drugs or prescription drugs, and they have given doctors numerous drug screening tools to find out.
Primary care practices are asked to use the following drug screening tools:
- Theย six-question BSTADย [Brief Screener for Tobacco, Alcohol, and Other Drugs]),
- The eight-item ASSISTย [Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test] risk assessmentโbased tool),
- TAPSย [Tobacco, Alcohol, Prescription Medication, and Other Substance Use]) may be useful when clinicians are concerned about prescription misuse.
- NIDA’s.ย Screening and Assessment Tools Chart,
- NIDA’s Screening for Drug Use in General Medical Settings:ย A Resource Guide for Providers
- SAMHSA’s -Health Resources and Services Administration Center for Integrated Health Solutions.ย Substance Use Disorder and Pregnancy
- Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.ย A Guide to Substance Abuse Services for Primary Care Cliniciansย
- SAMHSA’sย Finding Quality Treatment for Substance Use Disorders
Some will say that this is merely a recommendation and that doctors would never actually screen everyone for drug use on the government’s behalf. But it is already happening to welfare applicants in at least 15 states.
According to the National Conference of Legislatures, at leastย 15 statesย have passed legislationย regarding drug testing or screening for public assistance applicants or recipients.
When is the last time you or someone you know went to the doctor for an unrelated pain or bruise? Did the doctor ask you or them about drug usage? Of course, they did.
But if you will not take my word for it, then perhaps you will takeย Dr. Gary LeRoy’s word for it. He told the LA Times:
โWeโve been doing this for almost a decade in my office,โ said Dr. LeRoy, a staff physician at the East Dayton Health Clinic in Dayton, Ohio, andย president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Dr. Carol Mangione, the chief of general internal medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA toldย Stat News,ย โThis is a big change that weโre really excited about. Effective treatment is where we will finally begin to move the needle on the epidemic.โ
The National Institute on Drug Abuse created aย “resource guide”ย that doctors have been using for almost a decade to ask patients about drug use.
According to the USPSTF’sย “Draft Recommendation Statement,” about 50 percent to 86 percent of pediatricians report that they routinely screen patients for substance use.”
Will all hospitals and doctors adopt the USPSTF’s recommendations?
The New York Times warnsย “the groupโs guidelines are not binding on doctors but they carry weight.”
Theย Los Angeles Timesย warns,ย “the task force is a group of experts who advise the federal government on disease prevention.”
And that is the key takeaway from this story. The USPSTF might claim to be anย “independent, volunteer panel of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine. But each year, they sendย aย graded recommendationย to Congress, like this one, about mandatory drug screening.
As I mentioned earlier, most hospitals and doctors already ask their patients about their drug use. So it is really only a matter of time before the USPSTF convinces Congress to make it mandatory.
I took up investigative blogging because there are very few independent reporters left in our country.
I am also a member of the Digital Fourth. (https://warrantless.org/)
- Company Turns Any Camera Into an Automatic License Plate Reader - September 10, 2021
- Federal Surveillance State Empowers TSA to Control Entire U.S. Transit System - August 26, 2021
- Biden Gives “Five Eyes” Surveillance Consortium Access to Everyone’s Social Media - August 3, 2021