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(CNN) - The U.S. military is telling active-duty soldiers to stop eating poppy seed bagels, pastries and other foods with poppy seeds.The top Pentagon official for personnel sent a memo warning service members that eating poppy seeds could cause them to fail drug tests

Maine Drug Enforcement Agency agents revealed yesterday that EBT cards (debit cards that are loaded with funds for welfare programs, like SNAP and TANF) are being used as currency to buy drugs. In the past 11 months, MDEA agents have found 40 EBT cards in 25 drug enforcement operations.

While most Americans like the idea of drug testing for welfare recipients, they LOVE the idea of drug testing for members of Congress. According to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, 64 percent of Americans favor requiring welfare recipients to submit to random drug testing -- a measure pushed by Republican lawmakers in recent years -- while 18 percent oppose it. But an even stronger majority said they're in favor of random drug testing for members of Congress, by a 78 percent to 7 percent margin. Sixty-two percent said they "strongly" favor drug testing for congressional lawmakers, compared to only 51 percent...

America has a deficit of workers. Willing workers. Capable workers. Skilled, or at least semi-skilled workers, who can do a job and do it well. There are at least one million jobs that go begging day after day if only employers could find workers to fill them. This probably seems hard-to-believe. After all, how can America have a worker shortage when we have about 18 million Americans who are unemployed or underemployed? When the real unemployment rate is 12 percent? Well certainly the economy isn’t creating nearly as many jobs as it should – in large part because of regulatory...

A U.S. judge on Tuesday struck down a Florida law requiring drug screening for welfare recipients, saying that it violated the constitutional protection against unreasonable searches. Florida Governor Rick Scott, a Republican who campaigned on a promise to expand drug testing, said he would appeal the ruling. The law took effect in July 2011 and required parents to undergo and pay for urine tests for illegal drugs when they applied for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, a federal-state program that helps poor people with children pay for food, shelter and necessities. …

Doctors from numerous hospitals set up a station near the Capitol to provide notes to explain public employees' absences from work. Family physician Lou Sanner, 59, of Madison, said he had given out hundreds of notes. Many of the people he spoke with seemed to be suffering from stress, he said. "What employers have a right to know is if the patient was assessed by a duly licensed physician about time off of work," Sanner said. "Employers don't have a right to know the nature of that conversation or the nature of that illness. So it's as valid as every...

by Mark Finkelstein July 28, 2006 - 21:34 Imagine you're Larry King. You've landed the first interview with Floyd Landis, the winner of the Tour de France with a great feel-good story - until he flunked a drug test. What would be the first question you'd ask? OK, this is Larry King. Not known as the 'king' of the hardball, so to speak. So grant Larry a few warm-up questions to put Floyd at ease. But eventually, at some point, as painful as it might be, DON'T YOU HAVE TO ASK LANDIS IF HE CHEATED?? I mean, what the heck...

JONESBORO, Ark. (AP) -- Drug detection as easy as taking a swipe of someone's sweat could someday be in the hands of law enforcement, thanks to research conducted at the Arkansas Biosciences Institute at Arkansas State University. ''The hardest problems in science are often solved with just one question,'' said Robyn Hannigan, associate professor of chemistry and physics at ASU. During testing of tobacco smoke, fellow researcher Roger Buchanan asked Hannigan to develop a test that would allow him to measure the amount of nicotine absorbed by lab rats. He wanted a test that was a lot faster than traditional...

The National Conference on Tobacco and Health, held in downtown Chicago last week (May 4th through the 6th), produced a historic and very unusual experience for many Chicagoans.  The Sheraton Chicago and Hyatt Regency Chicago hotels, which hosted this convention, became entirely non-smoking for three days with no warning.  The only exceptions were their smoking guest rooms.   The purpose of this National Conference was "...To help improve and sustain the effectiveness and reach of tobacco control programs and activities in the United States."  For a registration fee of $575 per attendee, approximately 3200 people from all parts of our...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Following up on plans outlined in President Bush's annual address to the American people, a Pennsylvania lawmaker formally introduced a new program Wednesday encouraging public schools to test students for drug use. The $23 million testing plan, targeted at grades 8-12, would not be mandatory, but parents who do not want their children to participate would have to opt out. It is sure to draw critics who argue the pilot program will invade student privacy. But Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., said efforts to get youngsters off drugs far outweigh any concerns over their privacy. ''This is about...

NEW YORK (AP) -- The federal government is planning to overhaul its employee drug testing program to include scrutiny of workers' hair, saliva and sweat, a shift that could spur more businesses to revise screening for millions of their own workers. The planned changes, long awaited by the testing industry, reflect government efforts to be more precise in its drug screening and to outmaneuver a small but growing subset of workers who try to cheat on urine-based tests. Some businesses have already adopted alternative testing, despite criticism by privacy advocates. But others have held back, partly awaiting government standards. Alternative...

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) -- Some West Texas men on probation are in trouble again, this time for using the Whizzinator to help them pass court-ordered urinalysis tests. In the past six months, five men on probation were caught using a realistic-looking prosthetic that dispenses synthetic, drug-free urine, Lubbock County sheriff's officials said. One was caught by an alert officer who heard something unusual in the restroom. "A body part when it's up against a plastic cup isn't going to go 'clink,'" said Tom Madigan, interim assistant director of the Lubbock County adult probation office. The device, reusable and available in...

4 students fail nicotine part of city drug testsNone fail alcohol or drug portionsBy Bayne Hughes DAILY Education Writerhughes@decaturdaily.com · 340-2432Decatur City Schools had their first drug test failures during November's random tests, but not for drugs or alcohol.According to Supervisor for Safety and Alternative Education Phil Hastings, four students failed the tobacco portion of the random tests given to students participating in competitive extracurricular activities."All of the students admitted to it (smoking cigarettes or using smokeless tobacco), and are taking steps to stop using it," Hastings said.The penalties for positive nicotine use are not as harsh as the penalties...