(Dow Jones) DJN: Drug Charges Brought Against 11 DaimlerChrysler EmployeesWARREN, Mich. (AP) --Drug charges have been brought against 11 DaimlerChrysler AG workers following a 16-month undercover investigation at their auto plant.
A forklift operator, William Sturkin, was charged with possession with intent to deliver cocaine and heroin at the Dodge City truck assembly plant, where he worked for more than 20 years. Sturkin, 45, of Detroit, complained of heart problems Sunday in the Warren police lockup and was transported to St. John Macomb Hospital Center for treatment of an irregular heartbeat. He was arraigned Monday at his hospital bed and ordered held on $200,000 bond.
Police arrested 10 others last week on lesser charges.
Authorities launched the probe in late 1997, when workers complained to management about drug dealing at the plant. Daimler-Benz AG and Chrysler Corp. merged in November. After conferring with police and the Macomb County prosecutor's office, the automaker hired a private detective to work undercover in the plant. Detective Cpl. Mark Fontaine said the undercover employee purchased marijuana from Sturkin.
As part of the investigation, police also seized 77 rocks of crack cocaine valued at $10 - $20 each, 65 packs of heroin worth about $650 on the street, and 29 $10 packets of powder cocaine, Fontaine said.
He said more arrests were possible.
IMPORTANT NEWS The "CBS Morning News" completed a three part investigation on hair testing which was aired February 15th, 16th and 17th. Althought the intent of the story appeared to be designed to be negative showing variations among hair testing labs, the results of the study demonstrated the accuracy of Psychemedics testing methodology.
CBS sent "blind" test samples to Psychemedics and two other laboratory companies that advertise a hair test for drugs of abuse. Psychemedics was the only laboratory that correctly identified every drug - using individual as positive for one or more drugs and correctly identified non-users as negative.
Additionally, and most importantly, Psychemedics was the only laboratory that correctly identified the sample with external contamination. Both of the other labs identified this negative sample as positive. These "false positives" pose the greatest risk and liability to a company with a drug testing program. A false positive not only increases the risk of losing in court and embarrassing the company and its' management, but can cause great personal harm to innocent victims.
During the CBS report, reference was made to a series of studies which had been done by the National Institute of Standards and Technologies. Those studies involve sending 7 rounds of "blind" hair samples to numerous laboratories across the United States. Psychemedics has been 100% successful in identifying positives and negatives in all of these studies.
Psychemedics Corporation has performed, and continues to perform, more drug tests using hair as the sample than any other laboratory in the world. Our patented technology has withstood numerous court challenges. We pride ourselves on our state-of-the-art science and currently have over 1600 corporations, police departments, Federal Reserve Banks, parole departments and schools and universities relying on our patented testing.
We were pleased that even the CBS samples clearly demonstrated that our test is reliable, and most importantly, able to determine outside contamination and prevent false positives. Our clients can be assured that they are using the very best drug testing technology available.
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