P.R. Laws tit. 3, § 2509
The procedure for administering controlled substance detection tests shall meet the following requirements:
(a) The Institute of Forensic Science shall be the first option to be considered by the departments, agencies, and public corporations and instrumentalities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico for the administration and analysis of their employees’ controlled substance detection tests while it maintains competitive prices. However, if the Institute of Forensic Science cannot meet or improve on the price of a bona fide competitor, or if it lacks the resources for a specific contract, the agencies may then consider contracting another qualified entity to render said service. The foregoing shall not affect the rendering of services under contracts in effect to perform controlled substance detection tests at the time of the approval of this act.
(b) The samples shall not be submitted to any type of tests except those that are needed to detect controlled substances, as defined in § 2501 of this chapter.
(c) The test shall be administered according to scientifically accepted analytic and chain of custody procedures of the sample, whereby the privacy of the official or employee in question are protected to the maximum. The degree of intrusion shall not be greater than what is needed to prevent its contamination and preserve the chain of custody.
[(d)] The official or employee shall be advised in writing that if he so wishes, part of the sample may be turned over to a laboratory of his/her choice so that an independent analysis can be made of it. In any case, the official or employee shall have the opportunity to inform any relevant data prior to the test for the interpretation of the results, including the use of medically-prescribed drugs and non prescription drugs.
He/she will also be advised that he/she is entitled to obtain a copy of the controlled substance detection test results; to contest the determination of reasonable suspicion that gave rise to the testing; to contest the positive corroborated results at a hearing, and introduce evidence showing that he has not used controlled substances illegally.
(e) All results shall be certified by the entity that analyzed the sample before being informed to the agency. When a positive result is involved, the sample must be submitted to a second corroborative analysis, and a qualified Official Medical Reviewer shall study it, taking into account the medications that the official or employee reported that he/she used, and shall certify the results according to his/her observation and analysis.
(f) Any time needed for the official or employee to be administered the controlled substances detection tests shall be deemed as time worked.
History —Aug. 14, 1997, No. 78, § 12; July 30, 2013, No. 91, § 1.