Drug Testing Conditions in a Pennsylvania ARD Program

Attorney Answer

Yes, an ARD program can include drug screening — and what binds you is the written ARD order the judge signs, not what the district attorney told you across a table.

Pa. R. Crim. P. 316, titled "Conditions of the Program," provides that the conditions of an ARD program may include those imposed with respect to probation after conviction of a crime (including restitution, but not a fine), the imposition of costs and a reasonable administrative charge, and such other conditions as may be agreed to by the parties, for a period not to exceed two years.

Two things follow from that language, and they point in different directions.

First, the rule is broad enough to permit supervision and drug testing, because those are ordinary probation conditions. So there is nothing unlawful about a program that includes random screening, and the fact that the district attorney said otherwise does not make screening improper.

Second — and this is the part that helps you — the catch-all is limited to conditions agreed to by the parties. If screening was genuinely not part of what you agreed to, that is a point to raise before you accept the program, not after. Once the ARD order is entered with those conditions in it, you are living under the order.

Which means the real answer to your question is not in a statute. It is in the paperwork. Every county runs ARD differently, and the operative documents are the ARD order the court enters and the county's written program conditions, both of which you sign.

What you can do

1. Ask for a copy of the proposed ARD order and the county's written ARD program conditions before your ARD hearing, and read both of them all the way through. 2. Look specifically for the words supervision, probation officer, urinalysis, drug screening, testing fees, and reporting requirements. 3. If what you read differs from what the district attorney told you, raise it with that office in writing and ask for the answer in writing. 4. Raise the discrepancy on the record at the ARD hearing, before you accept the program. That is the moment when terms are negotiated and the only moment when "but I was told otherwise" carries weight. 5. If you have a lawyer, have them do steps 3 and 4. If you do not, get one before the hearing — this is a short engagement and it is where the value is. 6. Until the order says otherwise, comply with what you are told and dispute it through the court. Do not resolve a disagreement about conditions by skipping a screening. 7. Keep your signed copy of the order and every screening result in one place.