Drug testing for abuse and addiction

Drug tests can be an effective way to test for the presence of drugs in a person’s system. Common methods include urine and hair, while blood tests are used less frequently. Many addicts who abuse drugs or alcohol, however, have learned ways to tamper with drug test samples or affect the results. Care is needed to both administer the test and collect the sample. The following information about drug tests may be of interest to you if you or someone you care about is involved in substance abuse and may require a drug rehabilitation center or treatment program.

Urine Tests

Urinalysis – collecting and analysing a urine sample - is an older drug testing technology, which has been successfully exploited by some drug users. Urinalysis can generally detect drug use within the previous two to three days, for most drugs. After that period, the body flushes out the substance. Collecting a urine sample is intrusive and unpleasant, and requires the person to visit a urine collection site. To decrease the ability to tamper with the sample, urine collections should be observed. This can cause further uneasiness, particularly for women. Beating a urine test is relatively easy for an experienced drug addict or user. A drug user can simply abstain from using drugs for a short period of time, drink water, take the urine test and pass. Drug users can also substitute clean samples, or tamper with urine specimens. Information about ‘beating urine tests’ is widely available on the Internet – as are advertisements to purchase ‘clean urine’ or urine adulterating products.

Hair Drug Tests

Hair analysis can detect drug use for approximately the previous 90 days. Since the drug residue remains permanently entrapped in the hair, hair testing cannot be evaded by temporarily abstaining. It is relatively easy to collect a hair sample from a cosmetically undetectable location. Hair collection is not generally intrusive or embarrassing. Hair samples can be collected on site, which saves time, as the person does not need to visit a special collection site.

Blood Drug Tests

The detection period for blood drug tests is very short – usually only a few hours. With the feat of blood borne infectious diseases, blood drug testing is not usually the preferred method. Blood testing is the least used and recommended form of drug testing because of the invasiveness of the collection, the need for skilled sample takers and the extremely short detection period.