2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-ONE - Municipalities (§§ 1-4 — 6756) › Subtitle 6 - Autonomous Municipalities (§§ 4001 — 4990-4990j) › Chapter 224 - Drug Testing to Detect Controlled Substances in the Workplace (§§ 4581 — 4599) › § 4589 - Controlled substances detection tests; procedure

The procedure for the [administration] of controlled substances detection tests shall comply with the following requirements:
(a) The sample shall be taken by the Institute of Forensic Sciences, the Mental Health and Addiction Services Administration, or the qualified entity contracted for such purposes. The services for the [administration] of tests to detect controlled substances [in] municipal employees or officials conducted under the provisions of this chapter, and provided by any public entity, including the Institute of Forensic Sciences and the Mental Health and Addiction Services Administration, shall be done free of charge or at the lowest possible cost for the municipalities. To such ends, any public entity engaged in rendering said services is hereby authorized to negotiate the cost of the tests prescribed herein with the municipalities.
(b) The samples shall not be submitted to any type of tests other than those needed to detect controlled substances, as defined in this chapter.
(c) The test shall be administered according to scientifically accepted analytical and chain of custody procedures, in order to protect the privacy of the official or employee in question. A person shall take the sample that the official or employee shall hand over, as soon as the person leaves the sanitary facilities. For a more exact reliability [sic], the method of placing dye in the toilet water may be used to prevent the tainting of the sample. The degree of intrusion shall not be greater than needed, to prevent tainting and preserve the chain of custody.
The official or employee shall be advised in writing, if so desired, that part of the sample can be sent to a laboratory selected by him/her, to give them [sic] the opportunity to make an independent analysis thereof. In any case, the official or employee shall have the opportunity, before the test, to report any facts he/she deems relevant for the interpretation of the results, including the use of prescription drugs and those that are not prescribed.
He/She shall also be advised of his/her right to obtain a copy of the results of the controlled substances detection test; to challenge the finding of a reasonable suspicion that gave rise to the tests; challenge the positive, corroborated results at a hearing, and present attesting evidence that he/she has not used controlled substances illegally.
(e) Every result must be certified by the entity that analyzed the sample before reporting it to the agency. When a positive result is involved, it must be submitted to a second corroborative analysis, and a qualified Official Medical Reviewer shall compare the results with the medications listed by the official or employee, and shall certify the results according to his/her observations and analysis. The OMR who reviews and evaluates the results shall not be an employee or agent, nor have any financial interests whatsoever in the laboratory, nor shall derive any financial benefit from the laboratory that could be construed as a conflict of interest.
(f) Any time needed for a [sic] the official or employee to be submitted to the controlled substances detection tests shall be considered as time worked.
History —Aug. 30, 1991, No. 81, added as § 12.010 on Jan. 10, 1999, No. 30, § 4.