Part 1: Best Practices for Urine Sample Collection in Drug Courts

This is a 2-part series using the AllRise Adult Drug Court Best Practice Standards, Volume 2 as the source. Part 1 provides guidance for the best practices for urine sample collection from Drug Court participants. Part 2 of the series will be published in October and will focus on the best practices for urine drug testing.

Background¹

Drug and alcohol testing provides an accurate, timely, and comprehensive assessment of unauthorized substance use during a participant’s enrollment in a drug court program.

Best Sample Collection Practices for a Drug Court¹

To achieve accurate urine drug sample test results, the Court should adhere to proper urine sample collection techniques. By adhering to a few simple recommendations, the Court can trust the test results and minimize the risk of urine sample adulteration.

Urine Sample Adulteration¹

Drug Court participants acknowledge engaging in efforts to defraud drug and alcohol testing processes. If tampering is suspected, a new urine sample should be collected immediately under closely monitored conditions. Some common tampering activities are:

• Dilution: Excess water consumption to dilute the urine sample.
• Adulteration: Adulterating the sample by adding chemicals intended to mask a positive result. Common additives are bleach, peroxide, salt, Klear, UrinAid, Stealth, etc.
• Substitution: Substitution of a sample by using another person’s urine or by using a similar looking fluid such as apple juice. Participants have been known to substitute canine urine as their own urine sample. There is a device that mimics the male anatomy that people use to substitute a sample.

Suggested Urine Sample Collection Techniques¹

The Drug Court can achieve minimal sample tampering events by instituting simple tasks during the sample pre-collection, collection, and post-collection processes.

Pre-collection Preparation:

• Verify the participant’s identification using a photo-identification card (license, passport, etc.).
• Have the participant remove outer clothing such as coats and sweaters before entering the collection room to ensure that there are no chemical adulterants or fraudulent samples taken into the collection room.
• Provide a safe-deposit box to secure the participant’s keys, wallets, purse, briefcase, etc. prior to collection of the sample.
• Have the urine collection cups, PPE (personal protection equipment like gloves), and paperwork readily available and easily accessible in a pre-collection room.
• Use clean, single use, wrapped or sealed specimen collection cups with caps/lids and a temperature strip.
• If specimen will be transported to a testing facility, leak-proof bags, absorbent material and shipping containers/mailers readily available and easily accessible in a pre-collection room.
• Instruct participant as to how much urine is needed for the drug test.
• Instruct participant to immediately give the urine sample to the collector.
• A participant’s immediate supervisor, family member or friend should not function as the collector.

Collection Room Preparation

• Turn off the water sources to the sinks and toilets to prevent water from being used to dilute a sample. If this is not possible, use colored dye tablets in the sink, toilet bowl and toilet tank to prevent adulteration. Another option is to secure the water source (knobs) with tamper-evident tape.
• If water source cannot be shut off in the collection room, instruct participant not to flush the toilet or wash their hands after specimen collection until they pass the sample to the collector.
• The source for washing hands after the collection should be located outside of the collection room.
• If there is a soap dispenser located in the collection room, secure it from dispensing soap to prevent sample adulteration.
• The collection room should be devoid of all cleaning supplies.
• Only the participant and the collector should be in the pre-collection and collection room at the same time. No other person should be present.

Collection Process

• The participant should only carry the urine collection cup into the collection room.
• The participant should urinate into the collection cup and provide a minimum volume as instructed by the collector.
• The most effective way to avoid sample tampering is achievable by using the Witnessed Collection Process by a trained and experienced staff person. A Witnessed Sample Collection is a direct observation of a participant urinating into a collection cup by a trained Drug Court staff member. The witness should:
  • Be able to see urine leaving the body and entering the collection cup.
  • Verify that no substitution or adulteration of the sample occurs.

Witness Sample Collection Do’s

• The witness should be a trained staff member of the Court.
• Gender match the witness and the participant.

Witness Sample Collection Don’ts

• Use a witness that is not trained.
• Use a witness that knows the participant as this is a conflict of interest.
• Mix genders between the witness and the participant.

Post-Collection Process

• If a Witness Sample Collection process was not used, the collector should be present upon the participant leaving the collection room to accept the urine sample.
• If dye was used in the sink or toilet, the collector should visually inspect the sink and toilet to ensure that water was not accessed by the participant during the collection process. Likewise, the urine sample should be inspected to ensure that there is no visible dye in the sample.
• If tamper-evidence tape was used to secure the knobs on the sinks and toilets, ensure that the tape was not broken or tampered with.
• The participant and the collector should be the only people to handle the urine sample.
• The collector should check the sample for the following:
  • Ensure the sample volume is sufficient.
  • Within four minutes of collection, ensure the temperature of the samples is between 90º – 100º F.
• The collector will pour off the urine sample into the testing/shipping container and immediately seal the container with tamper-evident seals.
• The collector will complete the Chain of Custody paperwork for this sample.

Preparation for Sample Shipment¹

If the urine sample will be shipped to a different location for testing, the following recommendations should be used:

• The plastic bag that holds the urine sample should have two sealable compartments: one for the sample and one for the Chain of Custody paperwork.
• Absorbent material should be placed in the plastic bag holding the sample to absorb any leakage.
• The shipping container must be sealed and secured to protect the specimen from damage or undetected tampering during the transport of the sample from the collection site to the laboratory.
• If a courier is used to deliver the sample to the laboratory, it is not necessary to use a shipping container.

Conclusion

Drug testing is a critical factor in helping a Drug Court achieve success. Drug testing provides an accurate, timely, and comprehensive assessment of unauthorized substance use during a participant’s enrollment in a drug court program. Accurate test results are achievable if the Court adheres to simple recommendations for the pre-collection, collection and post-collection processes.

 

DTPM Solutions

DTPM’s mission is to help fight drug use and dependency. We offer drug testing solutions, both screening and confirmation testing, to a variety of testing facilities such as drug courts, treatment centers, physician office labs, reference labs and more. Our screening solutions provide flexibility to a testing site by offering simple point-of-care (POC) test cups or more specific instrumented drug immunoassays. DTPM also offers drug confirmation testing for those testing sites that require confirmatory results. General testing supplies such as gloves, lint-free wipes and pipette tips are also available.

Contact us today to learn how DTPM can help you in this war against drugs in the United States.

On September 3, 2024   /   Articles