Drug Testing 101

Rapid Detect has been doing business since 2002 and since that time we have answered many questions about drug and alcohol testing and it's products. Many times callers have no idea of what they need or what they are looking for. Let me inform you about the types and methods of drug testing and refer you to some other websites that can assist you in your pursuit of knowledge.

A drug test is a technical analysis of a biological specimen - urine, hair, blood, sweat, or oral fluid / saliva - to determine the presence or absence of specified parent drugs or their metabolites. (Wikipedia)

Uses of Drug Testing:

• Pre employment: Most common type of drug testing used by businesses looking to screen applicants for hire.
• Random: The most effective method. Names of employees are randomly pulled and the test can be given at random time.
• Post-Accident: After every accident many companys send their employee to be screened and determine if illicit drugs were present.
• DOT and Non DOT: Department Of Transportation have their own guidelines and regulations for drug testing. At this time rapid drug tests are not approved for D.O.T. testing. However, RDI does offer a saliva alcohol test that is D.O.T. Approved! This product is called Alco-Screen 02. D.O.T. Compliance is important and penalty's are costly (click here for more info)
• Parent: Sometimes a parent may suspect their child is using illicit drugs and they may seek out either a drug testing service or purchase a drug test from a drug store or from an online source.
• Court: Drug testing is a cornerstone of drug court program operations and many other programs.

Methods of Drug Testing

• Urine: The most common and affordable method. A urine dip card could be described as a plastic device holding test strips at the bottom of the device (much like pregnancy test strips) which are dipped in to urine and chemically react causing the strips in the test area to produce positive or negative results by lines forming in the test zone.
• Saliva: Other wise know as oral fluid drug testing. Sames as above, only uses oral fluid.
• Hair: Hair drug testing provides a detection history up to 3 months. A clip of hair is removed and is screened for illicit.
• Sweat: Least common method. A recent innovation in the science of drug testing. Known as the sweat patch.
• Nail Testing: Nail Testing provides a 6 month history - perfect for court testing

Types of Drug Testing

• Rapid Drug Testing: A drug test kit that interacts with human fluids (urine or oral) and provides preliminary positive or negative initial results in 5-10 minutes. These results should be confirmed by a SAMHSA approved lab for GC/MS confirmation.
• Instrumentation: Specimen is entered into a diagnostic instrument that tests the specimen sample for drugs of abuse. Normally, a computer is included in the process to read, store and print test results. (Picture of Instrumentation Equipment).
• Collection: A collection site simply collects urine or oral fluid specimens and transports them to a lab for testing of the sample.