Drug Tests

Drug Tests
Employee drug tests are on the rise and corporations make up their own rules regarding all types of testing related to pre-employment, random, and testing with reason or suspicion of use on the job. Employers can test future and present employees on any number of substances including but not limited to marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines or methamphetamines, opiates, and PCP. Expanded screening panels can also be requested that test for barbiturates (Phenobarbital), hydrocodone or propoxyphene (Vicodin or Darvon), Quaaludes, benzodiazepines (Xanax, Valium), methadone, alcohol, or MDMA (Ecstasy). Pre-employment drug testing is required by many companies, which remains to be very controversial for many reasons including an individual’s right to privacy.
There are primarily five different types of drug tests that are commonly administered. Urine testing is the most common method used because it is the least expensive, and can detect use within one week. Blood testing is the most expensive method, but it is the most accurate and least common. Hair can be tested to detect substance use over a long period of time, but it cannot detect use within the past week. It is several times more expensive than testing urine and is not as common. Saliva testing can detect more recent use and it is easy to administer, but still more expensive than urine testing. Testing sweat is another method of drug testing, but is relatively uncommon and the accuracy is controversial due to many false positive results. Detection periods for all substances depends on the amount, frequency of use, metabolic rate, body mass, age, overall health, and drug tolerance.
Drug tests are also available for home use to test for various drugs that are commonly looked for on a pre-employment drug screening. Home urine tests are inexpensive and can be purchased locally or online, the latter being the less expensive of the two. Prices vary on how many substances the test can detect. For instance, marijuana drug tests are cheaper than drug tests that look for more than just this substance, like three, five, and ten panel drug screens. For more information on drug tests, how they are administered, and passing them, go online and visit numerous sites devoted to this cause. At the heart of the controversy is an individual’s rights to what they consume in their personal time, either for medicinal or recreational reasons. This issue will continue to be up for debate for quite some time. While it’s a fact that drug tests are warranted in some situations, they certainly are not in others.