Types of Drug Testing

​Due to increase in drug abuse in western countries, especially in the USA, the need for drug testing even in the workplace has become recommended by a growing number of employers. If you're an employer, you should be aware of a number of drug testing methods available to you. To know which types of drug tests you can go through, here is some information about the different types of drugs tests.

Urine drug test:

One of the famous and typical drug testing methods is urine drug testing. This type of drug testing is known to be common because of the metabolites; that are the compositions generated by the metabolism of all substances consumed by the body. Scientific techniques used to detect trails of any drug in the urine includes the immunoassays, gas spectrometry, mass spectrometry, and thin layer chromatography. Moreover, the quantity of oxycodone in mg affects our system or urine.

Saliva Testing

We know that urine drug testing is the most common form of drug testing but on the other hand, saliva testing is gaining more importance than the urine testing, simply because it is less meddlesome. But, the thing to note is that for the accurate results, saliva drug tests should only be used to detect very recent drug use. One study, states that saliva testing can only detect the presence of cannabinoids when the abuser has smoked cannabis just about 4-10 hours before saliva testing.

Blood Testing

The most pricey and meddlesome of all other drug testing techniques also happens to be the most accurate. It perfectly detects right at the time of testing the presence of the elements and its metabolites in the bloodstream. At the time of the test, the actual amount of drugs present in the blood can also be measured accurately by a blood drug test. But, due to its costs and troublesome method, this type of test is taken less often.

Hair Testing

The drug metabolites penetrate into the blood vessels of the scalp, and the hair filters them and keeps them as a constant record of a person's drug use. Due to this process, the idea of hair grid testing existed. Many people, somehow, oppose the hair testing because it does not measure current drug use. For going through their drug test, a person could have last used the drug,a few months before, and he/she still be found positive till the current day of testing, because residues of the drug will remain in the hair for several months. No amount of shampooing can wash them away. The high cost and the prolonged processing of the hair samples are the reasons why few companies use them for workplace drug testing.

Perspiration Testing

This drug testing is one of the modern drug testing techniques available today. It requires working on a sweat patch affixed to the subject's skin for a period of 14 days. The patch is worn to detect the presence of drugs that a person excretes through sweat. Note that this drug testing method is more commonly used to observe people who are on probation or involved in child caretaking cases.

These are the workplace drug testing methods available to companies these days. If you're deciding to implement an employee drug testing, choose the drug testing method that best fits you.