The Portland Police Bureau has plans to implement random anabolic steroid testing for officers beginning in July 2011. Police watchdogs pressured the city to test officers for steroid use after arguing that they caused “abnormal and aggressive behavior”.
The Portland Police Association, a 900-member police union representing Portland law enforcement personnel, and the city reached an agreement that included steroid testing in February but Portland has been unable to find an affordable solution for steroid testing up until now.
Testing for recreational drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana only costs approximately $40 per sample while most laboratory that process steroid urinalysis charge $300-400. However, Portland located a laboratory in Northern California that only charges $130 per sample. The number of steroids and metabolites analyzed by this laboratory was not reported.
The pricing offered by the Northern California lab will allow Portland to conduct 660 rand steroid test per year. Approximately 914 law enforcement personnel subject to the contract will be affected.
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