Drug tests are practices that many organizations do to detect illegal drugs in your system. These hard drugs vary from country to country, but the fact remains that they’re all harmful to the body. They provide you with adverse side effects and can even make you develop life-threatening conditions. Hence, companies and other bodies performing drug tests are quite justifiable.
Interestingly, many organizations have been conducting drug tests for decades, with different types of these tests emerging along with technological advancements. Developers have designed these drug tests to detect trace amounts of any particular drug, even after a long time. Thus, it is vital to know the different types of drug tests available. Luckily, this article will help to highlight six different types of drug tests you should know.
1. Saliva -Based Drug Tests
A saliva-based drug test is a speedy way to test for the presence of drugs. This type of drug test involves using the professional taking a sample of your saliva and subjecting it to a series of tests. More often than not, these drug tests take a short time to complete.
For marijuana, this drug test can only detect its presence within ten hours of use. However, for other types of drugs such as alcohol, amphetamines, and cocaine, this drug test can detect its presence in your body for days after use.
2. Urine-Based Drug Tests
This is arguably the most common form of drug test that a lot of companies and industries use. Interestingly, about 90% of companies currently use this form of drug test to regulate drug use amongst their employees.
As the name implies, this form of drug test involves the professional using a sample of your urine and subjecting it to some tests. This form of drug test would look for illegal drugs like cocaine, amphetamines, and marijuana. Some can even test for nicotine. A urine drug testing kit is relatively easy to set up, as it only involves a few chemicals.
3. Blood Drug Tests
Before it proved its effectiveness, many people doubted the accuracy of the blood drug tests. Now, many health practitioners have deemed this drug test to be the most accurate. However, only professionals and health practitioners can administer this form of drug test due to its complexity.
When the health practitioner draws some blood from you, they immediately run it through several devices to detect if you’ve been using any form of hard drugs lately. It can detect alcohol for up to 24 hours, as well as other hard drugs like cocaine. Also, this form of drug test is the most accurate for marijuana use. This fact is because it can detect THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, for weeks after you last used it.
4. Hair Drug Tests
Hair drug tests are the most feared among stoners and other people who consume hard drugs. This is because of the ability of hair follicles to trap tiny molecules for months. For example, no matter how much or how little you’ve used marijuana, it can detect THC in your hair for four to six months!
This drug test detects illegal drugs like cocaine, opiates, marijuana, methamphetamine, and phencyclidine (PCP). Usually, health practitioners use the most recent hair sprouting out of your head for an accurate result.
5. Breathalyzer Drug Tests
We all know how dangerous driving under the influence can be. Not only would you lose a danger to yourself, but you could also harm the people around you. About 28% of traffic-related deaths occurred because people were driving under the influence of hard drugs.
Breathalyzer drug tests are another standard method for mainly detecting alcohol. Since they’re easy to use, police officers and other officials can carry these devices around to catch people driving under the influence. To test for the presence of alcohol and other drugs, you would be asked to blow into a tube. This tube is attached to the breathalyzer detection device. If it comes back positive, you would most likely not be facing some penalties.
6. Perspiration Drug Tests
This is the final form of a drug test on this list. Interestingly, you can find trace amounts of drugs in your perspiration after days of use. Hence, scientists invented this form of drug test, which is relatively new compared to others.
Health practitioners administer this form of drug test by applying a patch to your skin and asking you to leave it for two weeks. After this period has ended, you would then go back with this patch to the laboratory. At this point, this patch would contain a lot of sweat. Health practitioners can use your sweat to detect LSD, heroin, marijuana, and cocaine.
Final Words
The injection of technology has made Drug tests extremely accurate. However, many people don’t know about the different types of drug tests available. Luckily, this article has helped to explain the six significant kinds of drug tests available.