{"id":32999,"date":"2016-01-08T09:04:13","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T17:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/prescription-drug-use-rules-could-loosen-for-police-officers\/"},"modified":"2016-01-08T09:04:13","modified_gmt":"2016-01-08T17:04:13","slug":"prescription-drug-use-rules-could-loosen-for-police-officers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/prescription-drug-use-rules-could-loosen-for-police-officers\/","title":{"rendered":"Prescription drug use rules could loosen for police officers"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANCHORAGE \u2014<\/strong> A proposed change to Alaska\u2019s police hiring standards would allow potential officers to have previously used prescription drugs not prescribed to them, a move that now disqualifies them from consideration for the job for 10 years.<\/p>\n

The standard being proposed by the Alaska Police Standards Council would permit prescription drug use under \u201can exigent circumstance\u201d that justified the use and would only extend back five years, The Alaska Dispatch News reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe council\u2019s logic was there are situations in a person\u2019s life where they get injured or hurt and they have access to a spouse\u2019s or a friend\u2019s pain medications, and they take it. Eight years later, they apply for a police position, or a corrections position, and they\u2019ve been excluded because of that,\u201d said APSC Executive Director Bob Griffiths.<\/p>\n

The council had heard from police departments that a large number of qualified applicants were not making the cut because they had previously used a painkiller. Public safety officials wanted more discretion when considering a candidate\u2019s past drug use, said Griffiths.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis proposal would be a step in the right direction,\u201d said Alaska State Troopers recruitment Lt. James Helgoe. \u201cIf a person\u2019s only done it once, we at the Department of Public Safety, and the Alaska State Troopers, especially me, think there needs to be some relief to this problem, or a more common-sense approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it stands, marijuana is the only controlled substance that would not disqualify a potential candidate from getting hired if they used it in the last 10 years before applying. Nome Police Chief John Papasodora said the current regulations do not allow for the review of prescription drug use.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very black and white right now,\u201d he said. The potential change \u201cgives us the ability to review those kinds of events to determine if they\u2019re exigent and fit within the regulation. A person may deserve additional consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anchorage Police Department spokeswoman Jennifer Castro said the department does not believe the policy change would have a big effect on its pool of eligible applicants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t come across this situation as much, where someone needs medical attention and they didn\u2019t have the ability to do so,\u201d Castro said. \u201cIf you have the ability to get proper health care, we wouldn\u2019t consider that an exigent circumstance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The drug issue is one of several proposals by APSC that involve changes to Title 13 of the Alaska Administrative Code. Among the proposed changes are requiring departments to notify the council of alleged misconduct by an officer and requiring applicants pass a psychological exam before being hired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANCHORAGE \u2014 A proposed change to Alaska\u2019s police hiring standards would allow potential officers to have previously used prescription drugs not prescribed to them, a move that now disqualifies them from consideration for the job for 10 years. The standard being proposed by the Alaska Police Standards Council would permit prescription drug use under \u201can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-32999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32999"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=32999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}