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Military Drug Testing

UsaDrugTest — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:14:50 +0000

Drug testing in the armed forces in all types of the wings (Army, Navy and Airforce) is a must for each and every personal as the military has a zero-tolerance policy for illegal drug use. The military services conduct several types of no-notice urinalysis drug testing. Positive results on most of these tests can be used for court-martial and discharge procedures.

Department of Defense, which is more popular as DoD is attacking the problem on the two fronts of supply and demand. Education and deterrence are the key aspects of reducing demand for illegal drugs in the defense forces.

Military Drug Tests:

To combat the rising health concern of drug abuse in the defense forces, DoD uses more sensitive tests to detect ecstasy during routine urine testing. Active duty service members must undergo a urine drug test annually. Reserve component members must be tested at least every two years. DoD labs test more than 60,000 urine samples each month, but it would be next to impossible for a mistaken positive result to affect a service member’s career.

The Drug Testing Procedure:

There are several protections built-in to the system to ensure accurate results. There is always a written record of who those individuals who access the sample. People who come in contact with each sample and what exactly they do to the sample are written on the document.

After arrival at the lab, samples undergo an initial immunoassay screening (using the Olympus AU-800 Automated Chemistry Analyzer). Those that test positive for the presence of drugs at this point undergo the same screen once again. Finally, those that come up positive during the second screening test are put through a much more specific gas chromatography/mass spectrometry test. This test can identify specific substances within the urine samples.

Even if a particular drug is detected, if the level is below a certain threshold, the test result is reported back to the commander as negative. DoD labs are equipped to test for marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, LSD, opiates (including morphine and heroin), barbiturates and PCP. But not all samples are tested for all of these drugs. Every sample gets tested for marijuana, cocaine and amphetamines, including ecstasy.

Tests for other drugs are done at random on different schedules for each lab. Some laboratories do test every sample for every drug. Commanders can request samples be tested for steroids. In this case, the samples are sent to the Olympic testing laboratory at the University of California at Los Angeles.

How Long Do Drugs Stay Inside A Human System?

UsaDrugTest — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:49:19 +0000

It is important to know the detection period of the drug tests and the tenure of the drugs residing in the human system when testing for drug abuse. This makes the drug test more effective in avoiding the risks of false detection and reduces the acts of drug testing tampering.

How long the illegal drugs stay in a human system?

The time period for any drug to reside in a human system depends on many factors like age, weight, health, potency of the drug, quantity of the drug intake, frequency of usage, etc. All drugs stay up to 30 days in a system of chronic user. The following are some of the commonly used illicit drugs and the time they stay in a human system.

THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol/Marijuana)

Marijuana is also termed with other names like Bud, Blunt, Grass, Herb, Pot, Reefer, Sinsemilla, Smoke, and Weed. It can stay from 3 to 90 days in a human system when abused orally or through smoking. Traces of marijuana can be detected from 7 to 30 days in urine, two weeks in blood, and 90 days with hair.

Opiates

Opiates are available in the black market with names like Opium, China, Dreams, Dover’s powder, etc. Detection time of opiates ranges from 2 to 5 days. Opiates can be detected for up to 3 months through hair drug test and 6-12 hours in the blood or saliva drug test.

Methamphetamines

Methamphetamines or Meth is dealt with names like Crank, Crystal, Glass, Ice, Speed, etc. Meth can stay up to 2 to 4 days inside a human system. Traces of Meth can be found for up to 3 to 6 days in urine, 24 to 72 hours in blood, and up to 90 days with hair.

Amphetamines

Amphetamines are also dealt with names like Biphetamine, Black Beauties, Crosses, Dexedrine, Hearts, etc. Amphetamines can stay from 2 to 4 days in a human system. Traces of Amphetamines can be found from 1 to 3 days in urine, for around 12 hours in blood, and up to 90 days with hair.

Cocaine

Coke, Candy, Snow, Flakes, White Coat are some of the other names of Cocaine. Cocaine can stay from 2 to 4 days inside a human system. Traces of cocaine are found for up to 3 days in urine, from 1 to 2 days in blood, and up to about 90 days in hair.

Phencyclidine (PCP)

PCP is termed with names like Boat, Love boat, Angle dust, Hog, etc. Period of PCP staying inside a human system ranges from 7 to 14 days. It can be detected for up to 30 days in urine, 90 days in hair, and for around 2 to 4 days in blood.

Conducting drug test before or after the tenure of the drug inside a human system, obviously makes the results useless. However, chronic users are found positive more frequently in drug tests than others.

Why is Hair Follicle Drug Testing Better?

UsaDrugTest — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:20:28 +0000

Hair follicle drug testing is a new alternative to urine testing which is more reliable is easier to conduct. Unlike urine drug testing where the collection of the sample requires privacy and thus promotes a multitude of evasion methods. Hair follicle drug testing is much more reliable since it goes back up to 90 days depending on the test and the type of test conducted.

The only sample required is hair of the subject which is analyzed to detect evidence of drug abuse. As usual with any abuse detection test in the market, there are products which are purportedly capable of cheating the hair follicle drug testing process and returning a clean result. The more prominent among these that are doing brisk business over the internet are the so called cleansing shampoos. They only succeed in cleaning the exterior of the hair and leave the inside with trace amounts of illegal drugs as evidence.

In contrast, there are masking agents available to cheat the urine drug tests that are in wide use right now. Just the fact that in most cases the urine samples are collected in privacy enables the subject to provide a falsified or tampered sample for the test. Hair follicle drug testing is better on this front because the person in charge of the test can personally collect a sample and ensure that there will be no tampering of the sample.

Conducting a hair follicle drug test is child’s play with all those do-it-yourself drug test kits available in the market today. All you have to do is order a test over the internet and once the kit arrives, just follow the instructions on it accurately. Hair follicle drug testing works on the principle that when a drug is injected (or otherwise infused) into the blood stream which nourishes the growing hair follicles, a marginal but traceable amount of the drug is left on the hair follicle. Even after the hair follicle grows out, a trace amount of the drug is still left there which could be detected in the laboratory.

A half inch of hair sample could resolve into a 30-day history of drug abuse after being subjected to hair follicle drug testing. If the sample as 1.5 inches long, the rule of thumb dictates that up to 90 days of drug abuse history can be ascertained. People who are contemplating shaving their heads to evade the test could use the fact that body hair could also be used to test for drugs. The result of the tests is not affected by the use of bleaches or shampoos of any kind. It would be comforting to know that second hand smoke of weed is not detected in hair follicle drug testing.

Hair follicle drug testing is precise and sophisticated process, the low point being that it is also a slow process. A proper hair follicle test could take as long as 3 months before the results are returned. This obstinate delay in the availability of the result puts many people off, but the accuracy of the results and the general reliability of the method is an advantage that surely overrides any drawbacks of this process.

The amusing fact is that no matter whether you chose to agree with the credibility of hair follicle drug testing or not, this testing methodology is gaining wide opinion and devout followers. The future would see the elimination of urine drug tests in favor of this test for sure. The odds weigh in favor of the hair follicle drug tests, and for obvious reasons.

Impact of Drugs in Work Place

UsaDrugTest — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 01:44:46 +0000

Drug abuse, involves the excessive and repeated use of a substance to escape reality to produce pleasure despite its destructive effects. The substances abused can be illegal drugs such as opium, cocaine, marijuana and their derivatives or legal substances used improperly, such as prescription drugs and inhalants like nail polish or gasoline.

Drug abuse by employees cause many expensive problems for businesses ranging from absenteeism, lost productivity, accidents, and an increase in the health insurance claims.

A survey by the federal government showed full-time employees who admitted to being current illicit drug users tend to be: between the ages of 18 and 25, less educated, male, divorced or never married, white and low paid employees. The industries with highest rates of illicit drug use are food preparation workers, waiters, waitresses, and bartenders, construction workers and the workers in transportation and material moving.

The loss to companies in the United States due to alcohol and drug-related abuse by employees’ totals $100 billion a year, according to the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information. There are many impacts due to drug in workplace.

Drug Abuse lowers productivity: Studies have shown that substance-abusing employees function at about 67% of their capacity. Problems related to alcohol and drug abuse cost American businesses roughly $81 billion in lost productivity in just one year.

§ Drug abuse causes accidents and injuries: Employees who use drugs are 3.6 times more likely to be involved in a workplace accident and 5 times more likely to file a workers’ compensation claim. Up to 40 percent of industrial fatalities and 47 percent of industrial injuries are linked to alcohol use and alcoholism.

§ Drug abuse increases absenteeism and turnover: An estimated 500 million workdays are lost annually due to alcoholism. Illicit drug users are more than twice as likely than those who do not use drugs to have changed employers three or more times in the past year.

§ Drug abuse increases an employer’s medical costs: Employees who abused to drugs, costs twice in medical claims to their employers, compared to the other normal employees.

§ Higher Rates Turnover: Employees who tested positive on their pre-employment drug tests were 77 % more likely to be discharged within the first three years of employment and absent from work 66 % more often than those who tested negative according to US Postal Service.

Preventive actions

A study of the economic impact of substance abuse treatment in Ohio found significant improvements in job-related performance:

· 97 percent decrease in on-the-job injuries· 93 percent decrease in mistakes in work· 88 percent decrease in problems with supervisors· 91 percent decrease in absenteeism

When organizations take the preventive actions by establishing comprehensive programs, both employers and employees are benefited.