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How Effective Are Home Drug Test Kits

drugtest — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 07:34:20 +0000

Home drug testing kits are effective tools that help parents to confirm drug abuse in their children. Most of the times, home drug test kits help parents to identify drug abuse of their children in early stages and prevent them from facing future conflicts due to it. Major features of home drug testing kits that make them effective are easy handling, low cost, consistent privacy, and accuracy of results.

No privacy issues

The concept of home drug testing kits is to test people for drug abuse within domestic premises by friends or family members. Thus, there will be no issues like exploitation of donors’ privacy while collecting samples for drug testing. This is not possible in case of drug testing in laboratories.

Drugs that can be detected

Most of the standard home drugs testing kits have potential to detect almost all the commonly abused drugs. These drugs include marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines, opiates, oxycodone, PCP, alcohol, cotinine, etc. However, they are unlikely to provide reliable results on timeframe of usage, which is not possible even through some standard laboratory methods.

Present usage of these drug test kits

Apart from parents who are trying to monitor their children away from drug abuse, there are many other people who are using home drug testing kits for various purposes. One of them includes usage from the unemployed, who would be facing a random drug testing in their interview process. People, who are tested positive in home drug testing, may cancel attending their interview and thus reduce their chances of being blacklisted by the organization as drug abuser.

The accuracy and reliability of the results

Home drug testing kits approved by FDA are tested to provide reliable results with reasonable accuracy. Many competent vendors of drug testing kits ensure accuracy of their drug testing kits. However, home drug test kits are ideal for only first round of screening and are recommended to confirm positive results further with gas chromatography or mass spectrometry.

Easy to handle

Home drug testing kits are designed to be easily administered by any one. Moreover, they provide reliable results within very short period of time, which can be read effortlessly. It is this feature of home drug testing kits that made them so popular with people.

Home drug testing kits enable people to monitor drug abuse of their family members domestically. This monitoring helps them to detect drug abuse at early stages and prevent it.

Hair Follicle Drug Testing

drugtest — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:37:51 +0000

One of the most popular way of drug testing is hair sample drug testing as it has the capacity to detect the presence of drug in the persons body whether or not the same person has used drugs in the past 3 months. It can detect all of the major types of drugs, including marijuana, opiates, methamphetamines, PCP, ecstasy, and cocaine. It can also trace the amounts of illicit substances trapped in the cortex of the hair. All this proves that exposure area is much larger in hair drug testing. Hair follicle drug testing gives the information of an individual’s drug use history.

Hair follicle drug testing is a great way to detect the presence of drug in the hair of an individual undergoing the test. The process is quite simple and easy and requires a sample of hair in order to accomplish the test. Once a hair sample of the suspected individual is collected it is preserved in a sachet and sent to a partaking laboratory for drug testing. Hair follicle drug testing is fast and provides more accurate result than any other drug test forms. Hair drug testing discrete and confidential and so parents can collect a strand of hair from the pillow of their child if they suspect them to take drugs without allowing them to know before making accusations and take necessary steps to stop their child from further abusing drugs if they are found to use drugs. Thus by employing hair drug testing in the home, parents can safeguard their child against drug abuse while keeping the same issue confidential.

Even employers can request a sample from their employees if they are found to behave abnormally so that they can take proper action against them to keep the working environment healthy. Such drug testing programs although is more expensive that a urine drug test kit, but they avoid the embarrassing collection of samples like that of urine or saliva drug tests and also provide a level of accuracy that is nearly ten times that of other testing methods. All that is involved in this program is a single strand of hair and that is all. And as soon as the results are traced, you are sent notification of the results.

So you can see what kind of results you can get through hair follicle drug testing. Not only such program detects the presence of drug in an individual but also it helps to determine the level of users and the type of drugs used. The biggest advantage of such programs according to me is that such test can be done at home by parents who can safeguard their child against drug abuse while keeping the same issue confidential. And another best thing of hair follicle drug testing is that it avoids the embarrassing collection of samples like that of urine or saliva.

Types of Corporate Drug Testing

drugtest — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:45:36 +0000

Corporate drug testing: The drug testing is made mandatory at many corporations. The main reasons for drug testing at corporations is to

· Prevent any harmful effect that may occur to the employees.

· To prevent the harms this could happen to other employees due to the person consuming the drug.

· In the view of corporate social responsibility, most of the corporations are conducting drug testing.

Types of corporate Drug testing: There are different types of drug tests available that are been done at various levels and various circumstances. They are

Pre-Employment Drug testing: The most common type of drug test that can be found at most of the corporations is the Pre-employment drug testing. This type of test is been done to the person at the time of recruitment. Most employers use the standard five-panel test that detects the drugs like marijuana, cocaine, PCP, opiates and amphetamines.

Post Accident Drug Testing: This type of drug testing is conducted after any accident occurs to the employee during the job timings. This post accident drug test is not meant to fire the employee but to protect the company from the liability in the event that the individual is under the influence of the drug that caused the accident. If the drug content is detected in the body, then the company is not obligated to pay for the employee or it is neither obligated to any sort of cases which may effect the company’s goodwill.

Random drug testing: Random drug testing is the procedure where the employees do not know when the tests would be conducted. The frequent and unpredictable random drug testing acts as a deterrent on the employees as they will think twice before taking drugs.

Return to duty/ Follow-up testing: If any employee could not pass the drug test then that person should once again undergo the test with in forty-five days from the test. In that test, the person should get a clearance from the EAP and then he can rejoin the job. After joining, the person will be again tested unannounced and periodically the employee will be tested for six times in the next one year.

Request to retest: The person who has been tested positive for the drugs can apply for the retest, but he should apply only after seventy-two hours after the previous test is been done.

· Reasonable Suspicion Test: If the employee’s behavior or any other observational characters suggests that the person may be impaired due to drugs or alcohol, then both the drug test and the alcohol test would be conducted. If an employee is identified for reasonable suspicion testing, he will be suspended but when the results for the test are negative then he will be again taken in the job and will be paid for the time he has been suspended.

The Latest Report is in on Home Drug Tests for Teens

drugtest — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 04:52:24 +0000

Perhaps you have been noticing changes in your teens behavior, some subtle and some not so subtle. Body piercings, tattoos, odd torn clothing or joining a rock band, even though he doesn’t play an instrument and can’t sing. Is he on drugs or is it just a phase that he is going though? Should you get a home drug test and force him to take it and how accurate will it be? What if it gives a false positive?

Common Drug Tests

There are a now a number of reliable home drug tests that are available for use and all of them require that they be sent back to the laboratory for testing. They test for a number of types pf drugs but the most commonly used test for marijuana, methamphetemine and opiates.

A Long Lonely Wait

The fact that they have to be sent off and require a waiting period does create its own problems. Ideally a parent would like to have a test that a kid pees on and it instantly turns red if they have been using drugs but his just isn’t the case. So, there you are stuck waiting possibly for weeks while junior ridicules you and psychs you into thinking it is coming back negative.

Inherent Flaws

The big problem is that there are ways to bypass these types of tests such as simply pouring tap water over it. Also, if your teen is in an area that he doesn’t have access to tap water he can simply use a fake rubber penis with a clean urine sample that he has purchased over the Internet.

Technology or Tradition?

So while technology has made huge progress in the area of home drug tests for teens, many parents after careful consideration choose to go with the time tested method of screaming at their kid, while making blanket accusations. In the end studies have shown that some teens are going to do what ever they want to anyway and the best that a parent can do is to hide their money from them.

Know About Opiate Drug Testing

drugtest — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:44:27 +0000

Opiates are one of the most addictive drugs with sedative and analgesic effects, which depress the central nervous system. According to the TEDS report, opiates are the primary substance of abuse and accounted for almost one-fifth (19 percent) of all substance abuse treatment admissions in 2007. Some common opiates are morphine, codeine and heroin, of which heroin is the major illegal drug. According to NSDUH, there were about 114,000 persons aged 12 or older who used heroin for the first time within the past 12 months in 2008.

Opiates is one of the five metabolite groups called SAMHSA-5 that can be tested for workplace drug testing under SAMHSA guidelines. The opiate drug tests detect the presence of codeine, morphine, and 6-acetyl-morphine. The presence of 6-acetyl-morphine shows recent heroin abuse.

Urine drug testing:

Urine test is a common method of detecting opiate and its metabolites in urine specimen. Morphine can be detected in urine for 2 days, codaine for 2 to 3 days and heroin for 3 to 4 days. The cutoff concentration for initial test of opiate metabolites is 2000ng/mL. The confirmatory cut off level for morphine and codeine are 2000ng/mL and 10ng/mL for 6-acetylmorphine.

Hair drug testing:

Many opiates can be detected using hair tests. Hair tests require a sample of hair about 90 to 120 strands. The standard hair screen uses the most recent 1.5 inches of growth for testing. Hair tests detect substance abuse over a long period. Morphine, codeine and heroin can be detected for up to 90 days using hair tests. The initial cutoff level for opiate metabolites is 200 pg/mg and confirmatory cutoff value is also 200 pg/mg.

Saliva drug testing:

Saliva tests are easy to administer and adulteration of the specimen can be avoided. Morphine and heroin can be detected in saliva for 1 to 2 days and codeine for 2 to 3 days. The initial cutoff concentration level for opiate metabolites is 40ng/mL. The confirmatory test cutoff level for Morphine and codeine are 40ng/mL each and 4 ng/mL for 6-acetylmorphine.

Opiate abuse continues be a serious threat to public health. The above information will surely help you to understand different methods of opiate drug testing and choose the better one to detect this harmful drug without much hassle.

Pre-employment Drug Testing

drugtest — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:23:36 +0000

Pre employment drug testing is extremely important for any organization. Verification of employee’s background is always considered as essential of assurance in the hiring process. Employee drug testing programs protects the health and safety of all employees. This testing proves to be an efficient method of managing drug abuse. It is a valuable tool to acquire positive employee relations, delivering significant cost savings, and providing corporations with a competitive advantage.

The drug abuse remedies can be done in rehabilitation centers and curing centers. Thus, drug testing should be conducted in many places to examine the levels of drug usage. The drug abuse is raising many problems that are directly causing employee turnover, tardiness, absenteeism, theft, turnover, attitude problems, deceased productivity, crime and violence.

How the test is conducted?

Usually, drug testing is conducted by sending the candidate to a collection site, where a urine sample is obtained. This sample will be sent to a certified laboratory for analysis and results are available within 24 hours. There are instant test kits on the market, which are similar to home pregnancy tests. It involves the employer to manipulate a urine sample. Although these tests are considered accurate for immediate screening, they are useless in the event of a positive result, since that requires laboratory confirmation and retention of a sample for retesting by the subject. Moreover, they are much expensive then laboratory tests.

What is tested?

Usually, employers utilize the standard five-panel test, consisting of Marijuana, Cocaine, PCP, Opiates and Amphetamine. Few may use a ten-panel test, which includes prescription substances that are used and possessed legally. Employers can also test for alcohol. Virtually all drugs stay in the system for 2-4 days. For regular drug users, such results can be detected for up to 14 days and sometimes even more days. If the test is conducted through hair, then drugs can be detected for about 3 months. To avoid the obstacles from second hand marijuana smoke, many labs have set a higher threshold before reporting THC in the system.

What happens if there is a positive test or abnormal test?

Laboratory testing has an extensive process to confirm a positive test, before reporting. Many drug testing programs employ a physician called Medical Review Officer (MRO) to examine all test results. In certain cases, the test may be negative, but shows an abnormal result like, â??low creatine levelâ??. This denotes that the candidate have consumed excessive water or any alternative to dilute the sample. Though the test confirms the positive result, the program has the right to re-test the sample for their preference. For this purpose, the positive resulted test samples are retained.

The Pre-employment Drug Testing facilitates many employers to detect drug abuse among their employees, while screening them.

Benefits of Clia Waived Drug Tests

drugtest — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:09:56 +0000

CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment) Act was established in 1988 to set high quality laboratory testing methods to ensure accurate, reliable, timely test results etc. CLIA has categorized laboratory testing based on the test complexity of the performance and as per requirement of the laboratories. Waived drug test is one of the categorized laboratories testing with fulfillment of above requirements of the Act. Simple laboratory examination and procedures that are cleared by FDA for home use is known as waived drug test and mainly used to conduct preliminary or initial drug test.

Benefits of CLIA Waived Drug Test

Organizations provide various waived drug testing kits with 18 months durability from date of manufacturing and to be stored at room temperature. CLIA waived drug test uses simple and accurate methodologies to render appropriate test results without any risk of inconvenience for the patients. Many people are getting benefited with use this drug test like detection of drugs and few benefits are discussed below.

•    Detects up to 12 drugs at a time: 12 drugs can be detected with help of 12 panel CLIA waived drug testing kit at a time. Amphetamine, Barbiturates, Benzodiazepines, Cocaine, Ecstasy, Marijuana, Methadone, Methamphetamine, Morphine, Opiates, Oxycodone and Phencyclidine are the drugs that can be detectable using this drug test. SAMHSA cutoff levels are used to detect the above drugs.

•    Results are known in minutes: Results of test are known within 5 minutes and results are stable for 8 hrs from the time of performing the test. High quality standards with different methods of performing this test.

•    Small quantity of specimen: This test can be performed on different specimens as per the kits available like urine, hair, blood etc. specimen collected for conducting these are about 3 ml. No extensive paper is required for sample collection and for conducting the test. There is no chance of specimen tampering or adulterating.

•    Simple procedure: Very easy and simple procedure is followed for collection of specimen and performing the drug test. In hospitals, laboratories and at home this test is used very commonly, specified person is required for conducting these tests.

Accurate results: This test ensures accuracy, reliability and timeliness among the testing results. The main objective of CLIA is to provide quality laboratory testing results. These drug testing kits are approved by FDA.

Waived drug tests are affordable and fine effective, can be used at home, laboratories and hospitals. It helps you to test on your own to find any drug levels in your body or in your family members. The above points give you necessary information about CLIA waived drug test, procedure and benefits.