Downtown Jail Starts Voluntary Drug Tests as Part of Study

Officials have begun conducting voluntary drug-screening tests on men booked at the County Jail downtown as part of a one-year study of drug-use trends, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.

As part of a nationwide study, urine samples will be taken shortly after the bookings of about 800 inmates on charges not related to drugs or alcohol who volunteer for the project over the next 12 months, sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Rich Hendrickson said.

The volunteers are being taken from this sample to avoid biasing the study.

Law officials and drug-abuse case workers can use the findings as a warning of drug epidemics and as a guide to improving law enforcement and treatment programs, said Eric Wish, a fellow with the National Institute of Justice in Washington, D.C., an agency that conducts primary research for the Department of Justice.

The study will have four phases, with 200 samples being taken every three months. Some findings could be available one month after the first wave of tests, Wish said.

Other Cities Participating

“This should provide us with an indication of how well community programs to reduce drug abuse are working,” Wish said. “It will enable the city to plan more carefully the treatment and law enforcement of drug abuse.”

Findings of the San Diego study will be shared with at least nine other cities conducting similar studies--including New York, Indianapolis and Portland, Ore.--to determine whether regional trends in drug use by suspected lawbreakers exist, said Susan Pennell, director of research for the San Diego Assn. of Governments.

Researchers said inmates who volunteer are guaranteed confidentiality by trained interviewers. The men are promised nothing for participating, Hendrickson said.

The federally funded program will be managed and staffed by Sandag.

San Diego was selected for the study because of its “proximity to the international border, sizable inmate population and widespread use and availability of drugs,” Hendrickson said.