Drug usage is becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society. Many teens are taking illegal substances to alter their minds and emotions. There are frequent stories of students being caught with drugs or having bad drug reactions. Drug tests are used to determine if a person has used drugs recently. It is a common form of screening for drugs.
It’s the most accurate way to detect whether someone has been using drugs, and it can seldom be done without them knowing. There are many reasons why people may need to take a drug test in the workplace or in school. In this article, we will discuss some important facts you should know about drug tests.
Drug Tests are Usually Done For Legal Purposes
People are familiar with the idea of taking a drug test for employment purposes only. Most of the time, they are done for legal reasons like testing whether someone has been driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, as part of legal probation, employment requirements where drug use is either illegal or dangerous or for athletes who may use drugs to enhance their performance.
Drug tests can be given to people in employment, probation or parole officers, and judges. These drug tests are common to monitor the person’s progress and also determine whether they have been using drugs. The most common test used today is a urine test.
Circumstances That May Require Drug Testing
There are many circumstances that may require drug testing. These include court-ordered tests, random school or work tests, and substance abuse treatment centers. Drugs are known to make people get hyperactive and give them the drive to be more active than usual.
Many cases happen where people get behind the wheel of a car while high on drugs driving dangerously wanting to getaway. It is for this reason that a lot of companies set out to do random bulk drug testing on their employees and/or applicants just in case they get a wild hair up their backsides from the drugs they have been taking and attempt to get behind the wheel of a car while under the influence.
Methods of Drug Testing
There are several different ways to test for drugs. Some include testing urine, blood, saliva, and hair.
Urine tests are the most frequently used form of drug testing in today’s society. This is because urine samples can be taken from almost anything that comes out of your body such as blood or even sweat. The tests indicate whether one has recently used a specific drug.
When it comes to testing urine, there are two ways in which it can be detected. There is one where the test has to be sent to a lab and the other is done right on-site with an at-home kit. Urine tests check for THC metabolites, which indicate whether someone has been smoking weed over the last few weeks. They check for other drugs as well such as cocaine, methamphetamines, and others which can take a longer time to show up in a person’s urine test.
Detection Periods For Each Drug
The detection period of each drug depends on the form that the drug takes. THC which is what marijuana contains has a detection period of 7 days. THC is available in different types of drugs such as hash oil, cocaine can be detected within 2-4 days depending on the quantity used by the person. On the other hand, Methamphetamine has a detection period that ranges from 1-3 days whether it is being taken intravenously or orally.
Each method for drug testing has its own benefits and disadvantages. For instance, urine tests are able to show drug use over a longer period of time than other forms of testing such as saliva or blood tests. Urine test is also less expensive than saliva test which has a very short detection time for drugs compared to urine tests. Saliva test is able to detect drugs within a very short period of time, but it is also expensive and can be easily manipulated by the person being tested.
Drug Tests Can Tell Which Drug is Being Abused
They are not that complicated. After submitting your sample, it is sent to a laboratory where the technicians analyze the results and send them back to the examiner. Drug tests are able to tell which drug is being abused by the person. This helps in knowing what kind of treatment needs to be given to him or her. For instance, if a person is using cocaine, then he or she will be advised to go through some rehabilitation procedure meant for that particular drug.
Drug tests come in many different forms, but they all have one thing in common: They are designed to identify the presence of drugs. There is a lot more you should know about drug testing. We hope this article has given you some helpful information and insight so you can know what you’re getting into in case your company wants to carry out one.
