USA. The Tech Companies Policing Methadone Patients for Profit
USA. The Tech Companies Policing Methadone Patients for Profit
Apparently, fingernails and hair create “layers of drug history.” At the Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD) conference, held in Baltimore in November, I wandered over to the United States Drug Testing Laboratories booth in the enormous exhibit hall, drawn to the company’s display. A green banner showed a goofy-looking white man sporting mirrored sunglasses on his forehead, with the words, “Get out of the ‘80s. Offer more advanced testing with higher panels, including fentanyl and Suboxone in hair and nail.” A cardboard poster showed a large, pink thumbnail: “Drug testing that looks back six months? It’s as simple as clipping the nails.”
It was eye-opening to see the industry all in one place. Methadone-clinic megachains BayMark and Pinnacle were joined by nine drug-testing companies, two corporations that make safes, a purveyor of high-density urine collection cups and technology businesses that have created a “video monitoring platform” and a GPS-enabled lockbox. (Filter, USA, 14.02.2023)