10-144 CMR Ch. 266, Certification Standards for Persons Conducting Chemical Analyses for the Detection and Identification of Drugs

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The Department adopted emergency routine technical amendments to its Certification Standards for Persons Conducting Chemical Analyses for the Detection and Identification of Drugs Rule to reduce the State’s backlog of forensic tests by updating qualifications required of certified lab analysts to immediately address laboratory capacity.

This emergency rule repeals the minimum number of academic semester hours a lab analyst is required to have completed in specific subjects.  This requirement has been replaced with educational and training requirements that focus on competency testing, completion of specialized Department-approved training, and/or experience in an accredited Forensic Testing laboratory.  These amendments further require that a certified lab analyst’s work be performed only in a lab that meets international standards for testing and calibration laboratories (ISO 17025 standards). This update more appropriately ensures that lab analysts are qualified through competency testing and accreditation standards, which is the standard practice in the industry. In addition, the Department revised the requisite length of time a certificate is valid from five years to one year (Section 8), consistent with other Department-issued certifications and ANSI-ANAB standards.

Office: Maine CDC

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Comments for this rule have been closed.