Help and Advice, with Solutions for drug testing

Solutions for Drug Testing

Here is the help you need to understand the art of drug testing.

Help and solutions are here to guide you with the task of testing individuals for illicit drugs. We discuss drug abuse, what drug tests are, how to use them, and how to interpret the results, plus questions about testing.

What are drugs of abuse?

Drugs of abuse are illicit drugs or prescription medication taken for longer than prescribed by the doctor to get high. Prolonged use or unintended use of certain drugs can lead to severe addiction and even death.

What is the function of a drug test?

To establish if an individual is using or abusing an illicit drug or abusing a prescription drug. The process requires a simply rapid drug test. They are inexpensive to buy and available in two analytic types; urine or saliva. Manufacturers produce many different options that simultaneously analyze the most commonly abused illegal and prescription drugs. These are Oxycodone, Methamphetamine, Ecstasy, Cocaine, and Heroin. Commonly abused prescription medications include Ambien, Oxycontin, Percocet, and Adderall.

How often should I test for drugs?

• The frequency of testing an individual depends on the circumstances. If they are frequent abusers, we recommend they initially be tested at least three times a week. This helps to establish what drugs are being abused and what to test for in the future.
• Employers will often test new hires to establish they are free of commonly abused drugs.
• Parents use them when they suspect there is a problem with their teen’s attitude, or they find drugs or paraphernalia in the home.
• There is also what we call reasonable suspicion. This is when you suspect abuse but can’t prove it. Test randomly at least once a week or twice a week for the first month.
• One final note, never give an individual notice you will test them in the next few days.

What’s the best type of drug test?

We recommend urine tests as they are inexpensive to buy, and results are almost instant. There are also Oral Saliva tests, which produce similar results to Urine tests. Both are classed as qualitative devices having a “YES” or “NO” answer, much like a pregnancy test. It will tell you yes there is a drug present or no there isn’t but not by how much. Here is a comprehensive chart for drugs of abuse with detection times for urine and saliva tests.

What are Oral drug tests?

An Oral saliva test requires saliva from the mouth instead of urine for detection purposes. Why use an oral device instead of a urine test? Well, oral analysis is difficult to compromise or ‘cheat’; there are no gender issues so that either sex can administer the product, which means there is no need for a bathroom. Now there are FDA Exempt Oral Drug Screens officially available for the workplace.

Why do tests have panels?

What does each panel represent on a drug test?

Each panel is color-coded or marked in some way, identifying what substance is analyzed. The packaging will also indicate what substances are tested too.

The image above shows pictures of the test wrappers and the drug test itself. Image right: 5-panel test – Panel 1 Red, Amphetamines (AMP). Panel 2 Blue, Barbiturates (BAR). Panel 3 Black, Buprenorphine (BUP). Panel 4 Green, Benzodiazepines (BZO). Panel 5 Light blue, Cocaine (COC). Panel 6 Cyan, Methadone (MET).

How accurate are drug tests?

A urine drug test is over 90% accurate. An Immunoassay, as it is called, is very sensitive to detecting drugs of abuse. The ‘cut-off level’ is what determines if a drug of abuse is detected. Cut-off levels are preset to specific values for each drug, and so if a drug is detected, it will be over the cut-off level.

What are the test lines?

These are the lines or bars that appear in the window of a drug test. Identified with a letter (T) and (C). These lines are apparent when the result is negative. See the image below.

What are the control lines?

The control line or bar is identified by the letter (C); If it’s visible, it indicates the test worked correctly. See the images below.

What is a Negative result?

It means that no drugs were detected. The cut-off level determines a negative. This is the threshold; below the cut-off is negative.

Does a faint bar mean it’s slightly positive?

No. If you see a line, it indicates a negative result. The presence of a test line, no matter how faint, is an indication that the test was negative. Some test lines may be weaker than others, but this does not indicate that more of a drug was detected. See the image below.

How accurate are drug tests?

Why is the result negative when I know it should be positive?

Does a presumed positive mean drugs of abuse were found?

No. Take no action until you get the result from the lab; If you get a presumed positive result, you must send the urine sample to a laboratory; they will test it using specialized equipment to confirm the preliminary result.

Remember that a positive result for a prescription drug does not mean the person is abusing drugs. Use the services of our Medical Review Officer. They are trained physicians who understand lab results and will advise accordingly.

Here are some solutions for drug testing successfully.

What is the timeframe for detecting drugs?

The table below shows the window in which you can detect common drugs of abuse. These are only guidelines as times can vary significantly, often due to how often they used the drug, the amount they used, and the person’s metabolic rate. Here is a link to our Common Drugs of Abuse Chart

Why are cut-off levels on a drug screen different from lab cut-off levels?

After consuming a drug, the body metabolizes the parent drug into another substance. A drug screen is designed to detect these metabolites. Back in the seventies, the government established levels that determined whether the result was positive or negative. These are called cut-off levels. Laboratory analysis is designed to detect only one primary breakdown product than a drug screen; therefore, the minimum amount needed to be present in the urine is generally lower. (see chart below)

Lab drug testing.

After ingesting a drug, the body metabolizes the substance into as many as eight different breakdown products. These combine to cause a test to read as a presumed positive result. At the lab, the confirmation test is designed to detect only one. Marijuana would have a cut-off screen level of 50 ng/mL in the example above, whereas a lab confirmation level is only 15 ng/mL. Only one substance must be present at 15 ng/mL for the lab to consider the sample positive. If the element is present at 14 ng/mL or lower, the sample is deemed to be negative.

How long does Marijuana stay in your system?

With occasional users, Marijuana may stay in their system for up to 10 days. Many variables make it difficult to project precisely how long the drug may be detectable. We have found that Marijuana can stay in your system for over 60 days; this all depends on whether they are an occasional user or a chronic user. The metabolite of Marijuana is Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and tends to stick to fatty areas in the body. Moreover, consuming no amount of fluids – even diuretic fluids – will permanently “flush” it out of one’s system. The best solution is to abstain and do plenty of exercises. Check out this Marijuana Test, it will give you a level of how much THC is in your system.

One of my teens admitted to using drugs last week, but the test result was negative. Why?

Questions and Solutions for drug testing

Why is the process of urine drug testing so important?

Can I use urine out of the toilet for the test?

NO. Urine in the toilet has been diluted and may have been exposed to cleaning agents that would affect the test results. We do not recommend using urine collected in this manner; the results would be inconclusive.

Solutions for drug testing.

Let’s get started; you must grasp the basics of drug testing to understand what to expect and how a drug test works. The first rule is to follow the manufacturer’s instructions, and the second rule is to use our guide to get the best from testing.

• Check the urine temperature and validity of the sample before testing.
• Test to see if the sample has been adulterated or diluted.
• Check to see if it’s in range. 93º to 98º F is the acceptable urine temperature range; a typical temperature is 96º F.
• Don’t accept excuses as to why it’s not in range; if you observe anomalies, it’s a sure sign of a cheater.
• Follow these fundamental rules to get the best from a drug test with the expected result.