Drug Tests

Drug testing and analysis both are equally important for every purpose and this is most common test that is conducted when you have a problem of health or for the purpose of forensic science or for any purpose of verification about health of an individual. Drug testing can be made by hair, urine, saliva or sweat. Each kind of test will have certain method to follow and the result will indicate either a positive result or a negative result.

First the samples are collected from the individuals who are identified for drug testing and they will be asked to give sample in a bottle and the sample will be sent to laboratory for analysis. In the laboratory, the sample will go through several stages of testing and the result will be observed only after few hours.

Therefore, the drug test can reveal a result nearly on eight to nine drugs and these will be producing different reports for each drug.  The specimen taken for drug testing is an important source and this will be very useful in a laboratory.

For many years, specimen sample has been considered for detection of crime, drug addition or for any other disease analysis. This is medically very advanced and in fact it is a very high  technology that is used for  drug testing, which cannot give a failure result at any cost.

In countries like United Kingdom and United States, drug testing is the prime most important activity used by government agencies and judicial agencies. The reports of a laboratory are very important to the authority to detect whether an individual has been under the influence of a drug and what are its effects on the health of that individual.

Drug testing is performed for athletes who might use steroids to perform well in international events and this very much prohibited and considered to be unlawful activity. Athletes who violate these laws and use drugs will be put on drug testing and when they prove to be positive, their championship or titles will be cancelled and they can no longer participate in sport events.

This is because, international sports carry several bye laws that athletes have to perform on their own physical energy and should not be under the protection or be covered by a drug protection for their health.  It is a very moralistic and ethical approach towards international sports to stay away from the use of drugs.

Saliva drug testing was developed as a simple way to test for the main recreational drugs, marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines and heroin.  They are used in place of blood and urine tests as a happy medium between the complexities of taking blood, and the potential for spoofing a urine test.  It is much harder to fool a saliva test than it is a urine one, although it is still possible.

A recent study by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 84% of employers now require some kind of drug testing to be performed as part of the application process.  The saliva test is the least intrusive, most user and subject friendly test to date.  It also provides quick results, which is a distinct advantage if performing workplace random drug tests.

Even though they may be accurate, it is still recommended to have positive results analyzed by mass spectrometry to confirm a positive result.  It will test for both the substance and the metabolite which can confirm ingestion of the drug rather than just exposure to it.

The downside to a saliva drug test is that is can only test for drug use over a short period.  For example, it can only detect THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis within 24 hours of ingestion.  This kind of testing wouldn’t detect occasional or social, weekend use unless the subject was really unlucky.

To perform the test, the agent will use a toothbrush-like implement and swab it in the mouth between the tongue and cheek for a couple of minutes.  The swab is then removed and placed immediately into a container and sent to an approved laboratory.  The laboratory will then test and either inform the subject or the employer, depending on what kind of test was carried out.

There are home testing kits available that perform the same function for either testing individuals or children for substance use.  These will use exactly the same method of collection, then be sent to the laboratory.  They can take longer than an employer test, up to six weeks to have the results.

If the saliva test was part of a job application, the results will often only be shared with the employer.  In most cases, it’s only if the test was negative that you will hear anything from them.  If an applicant hears nothing after a test, they would want to contact the human resources department of the potential employer in case.

Like with other testing methods, many laboratories will back up positive tests by using mass spectrometry.  These are the most accurate testing methods we have, and a positive mass spectrometry test is widely accepted as fact.

Thanks to President Reagan, drug tests are now commonplace when applying for jobs, and while working in others. A US Navy aircraft crashed on the deck of the USS Nimitz in 1981, taking some crewmembers with it. As a result he signed an executive order mandating drugs testing for all federal employees.

Shortly after, the private sector was let in on the act and permitted to perform drug testing on job applicants as part of the application process. Now over 84% of employers in the United States have some kind of drug testing process in place. Schools and colleges are also beginning to implement drug testing of their own, and you can now buy home drug testing kits almost as readily as you can pregnancy testing kits.

A drug test is designed to locate chemical compounds of specific drugs, or the metabolites of them. When a body digests or metabolizes, something, it breaks it down into other chemicals. Specific compounds have specific metabolites, which these tests will detect. The idea of searching for metabolites as well as the drug itself is that it’s evidence of the subject having ingested the drug.

These metabolites are transported by the body and stored in fatty deposits. These are semi-permanent and will only disappear when the body burns the fat for energy. Therefore, the tests can often detect drugs long after the actual event. The detection time varies however between the drugs, and the lifestyle of the person involved.

The tests themselves are no indicator of intent, so they cannot prove that the person voluntarily took drugs, only that they have taken them. While this is a little wooly as far as the law goes, the presence of drugs in a subjects system, whether taken knowingly or not, is enough to deny employment or attract other kinds of censure.

The urine test requires a sample of urine and a test card is applied to it to indicate the presence of any drugs. If the card provides a positive result, the urine is sent for further testing in a laboratory. This test is very reliable but is subject to being fooled by urine substitution or drinking water heavily for a period before the test.

The hair test is another reliable drug testing method. A sample of hair is taken and tested for the same metabolites. As the drug is ingested in the blood, they are deposited into the hair follicle. There is stays until the hair either drops out or is cut off.

The blood test is the most complicated, and expensive drugs test to undertake. It involves the taking of a sample of blood by a doctor or nurse and having that blood tested for the metabolites. These are often reserved for court cases, litigation or life insurance policies.

All positive results can be confirmed by using mass spectrometry, which confirms the presence of the compound and the metabolites at the molecular level, and is regarded as absolutely accurate.