Opioid Epidemic within the USA Criminal Justice System

The opioid epidemic in the United States has worsened due to Covid-19, with deaths caused by overdose increasing by 28.5% from April 2021. In the US 13.3% of people started or increased their substance use to cope with their stress and emotions related to COVID-19 Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Taking opioids can leave users with withdrawal symptoms including sweating, shivering, rapid heart rate and twitching according to Oxford Treatment Centre. These symptoms can be treated if the issue is detected through precise and reliable testing.

According to Biomedical centre, 1 in 4 people with an opioid use disorder had contact with some part of the criminal justice system the following year. Only 11% of those incarcerated that have addictions are treated for their illness.

With the links between drug use and crime increasing, drug screening has become essential to identify the misuse of opioid’s to further understand the affect they are having on populations.

Randox Toxicology has transformed the landscape of drugs of abuse (DoA) testing. Our unrivalled toxicology test menu is capable of detecting over 500 drugs and drug metabolites. The Evidence MultiSTAT is an automated analyser that enables on-site simultaneous detection of up to 21 classical, prescription and synthetic drugs from a single sample within 20 minutes. The MultiSTAT is user friendly, does not require a laboratory as it is suitable for any location and further does not need any laboratory experience to be operated. Multiple matrices can be tested, including urine, blood and oral fluid on our fully automated evidence MultiSTAT.

To find out more about our Biochip Array Technology, Evidence MultiSTAT and our full Evidence Series range, email us at info@randoxtoxicology.com.