Drug Testing

Drug testing occurs in a wide variety of settings across the United States, including workplaces, the military, schools, treatment programs, and the criminal justice system. This includes both public and private settings in the United States. Large numbers of individuals are tested every year, such as drug addicts in treatment, individuals on parole, employees in a variety of industries, and students involved in an extracurricular activity in school. Drug testing that occurs in schools and workplaces across the United States is widely debated. Federal drug testing rules authorize testing for the following five types of drugs: marijuana, opioids, cocaine, amphetamine and methamphetamine, and PCP This list does not include club drugs such as ecstasy. Furthermore, there is no current standard testing procedure that can detect inhalant usage, which is popular among adolescents. There are five types of drug testing currently in practice in the United States: urine testing, hair testing, blood testing, sweat testing, and oral fluid testing.

Urine testing is the most common form of drug testing in practice in schools and in the workplace. It is the least expensive, most widely used, and most accepted form of testing in the United States. The biggest concern about urine testing is the potential for adulterated or substituted samples. Urine testing has a 1- to 5-day window of detection. Urine testing is a fairly cost-effective form of testing, with an individual test costing under $50.

Hair testing is frequent in some industries, such as the gambling industry. It has a longer period of detection but is generally less accurate due to hair treatments and environmental effects. Hair testing can also measure chronic drug use and can detect combination use of alcohol and cocaine. The biggest concerns about hair testing are that it is more expensive than other forms of testing, and it does not have the capability of testing recent drug use. The window of detection for hair testing varies depending on the length of hair, but hair testing does have the longest window of detection of all types of testing, as IV2 inches of hair shows approximately a 3-month usage history.

Blood testing is commonly used in drug overdose cases and in hospitals during postaccident investigations. Almost all drugs can be detected through blood testing, although it is extremely difficult to detect marijuana usage through this method.

Sweat is tested through the use of a waterproof adhesive pad and can be used to test a number of substances, including cocaine, morphine, methamphetamine, heroin, PCP, and marijuana. Sweat patch testing also has a longer period of detection than does urine testing. There are several concerns with this type of testing, however, including the fact that individuals with skin conditions and those with excessive hair cannot wear the patch. Furthermore, passive exposure [Page 340]to drugs can affect the results by contaminating the patch. The patch can detect drug use for up to 7 days.

Oral fluid tests are done by swabbing saliva from the inside of the cheek, which can show usage of amphetamine, barbiturates, cocaine, marijuana, opi-oids, and PCR It is more efficient than urine testing for recent use but is not very effective past a window of 3 days. There is a minimal risk of tampering with oral fluid testing samples; however, oral fluid testing is less efficient in detecting marijuana usage than some other forms of testing. Oral fluid testing has only a 10- to 24-hour window of detection.

...