US Navy Expands Drug Screening Policies Due to Alarming Synthetic Opioid Statistics

Effective immediately, the U.S. Navy will start testing all drug screening urine samples for Fentanyl, a highly addictive synthetic opioid. The expanded screening initiative is due to alarming data issued by the CDC’s National Vital Statistics Report on March 21, 2019. The announcement, which you can read by clicking here, states that overdose deaths due to Fentanyl rose from 1,615 in 2011 to 18,335 in 2016. According to the study, numbers and rates increased for all sex, age, racial and ethnic subgroups, and most public health regions. Pharmaceutical Fentanyl was developed to help cancer patients manage pain and is often applied as a patch on the skin, though it’s available as an intravenous injection as well as a pill.

As CRC covered in our previous article about Fentanyl, standard 9 and 10 panel Non-DOT regulated drug screens are unable to detect Fentanyl as well as other synthetic opioids. The Navy is following a trend set by other proactive organizations that have implemented expanded random drug screening policies to maintain a healthy workforce. If you’re interested in working with a provider that can screen for Fentanyl as well as other synthetic opioids, CRC offers an integrated drug screening solution that allows employers to schedule collections via a user-friendly paperless platform. Reach out to one of our Sales representatives for more information!

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