Drug and Alcohol Testing According to Connecticut General Statutes

Conn. Agencies Regs. § 14-227a-9b. Requirements for the conduct of the testing and analysis of blood and urine.

Requirements for Blood Collection

(1) Blood shall get withdrawn by a person licensed to practice medicine and surgery in this state, a phlebotomist. The definitions for this comes from subdivision (12) of section 14-227a-1b of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies. A qualified laboratory technician, an emergency medical technician II, a registered nurse or such other occupational classification as the commissioner determines may competently and safely withdraw blood for the purposes of sections 14-227a-1b to 14-227a-10b, inclusive, of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies.

(2) Blood samples shall be collected using a sterile syringe and hypodermic needle. Other options include equipment of equivalent sterility. The skin at the area of puncture shall get thoroughly cleansed and disinfected. This happens if any solution containing ethyl alcohol shall not get used as a skin antiseptic.

(3) Containers and other equipment for sample collection must preserve the integrity and suitability of the sample. Also, the sample must have protection from the time of collection until analysis. Following collection, the container for each sample shall get sealed and labeled. In addition, only those samples properly sealed shall be analyzed.

Requirements for Urine Testing

(1) The police officer collecting the sample shall monitor the collection of the sample. This ensures that adulteration or misidentification does not occur. Collections shall be monitored by a police officer of the same gender as the individual from whom the sample gets obtained.

(2) Containers and other equipment for sample collection shall be of a type that will preserve the integrity and suitability of the sample from the time of collection until it can get analyzed. Following collection, the container for each sample shall be sealed and labeled. Only those samples properly sealed shall be analyzed.

Requirements for Blood and Urine Tests

(1) No analysis result may be reported or used for the purposes specified in section 14-227a-2b of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies, unless the method or methods used to conduct the analysis get approved by the commissioner and such analysis gets performed by an analyst.

(2) In conducting the analysis, the analyst shall use standards and controls approved by the commissioner.

(3) All tests shall be performed in duplicate. Alcohol test results shall be reported to the requesting agency only when the duplicate results correspond to each other within 5% of the mean value. Drug test results shall be reported to the requesting agency only when the duplicate results correspond to each other within 20% of the mean value.

(4) All reports, written and oral, shall indicate the determined or equivalent blood alcohol content in terms of hundredths of a percent. When determinations are made to the nearest thousandth of a percent, results shall be truncated to the first two digits after the decimal point. For example, a determination of 0.149% shall be reported as 0.14%.

Getting Help

If you have faced drug and alcohol testing in Connecticut and you need help, contact an attorney.