Oral Drug Tests: Why Your Employer Loves Them
Oral drug tests employ a swab of saliva taken from the test subject’s mouth as a sample to examine for the existence of drugs. Since they are easy to use and much more complicated to falsify than some other methods of drug testing such as urine analysis, oral drug tests are becoming extremely prevalent. This is particularly true for employers. schools, the armed forces and law enforcement. Reasons for testing can include pre-employment testing, on-going randomized testing, post-incident testing where drugs could be a factor, reasonable suspicion situations where conduct suggests a probable problem, and return-to-duty testing. Random testing is the generally efficient type of drug testing since a random test gives the test subject minimal time or opportunity to dodge the test process. Saliva based tests are ideal for random drug testing. They are quick, easy to administer, and not as invasive as other methods of testing that necessitate urine, blood or hair sampling. The results of oral drug tests are exceptionally close to those of drug tests performed with blood samples without the requirement for painful procedures. It is notably worthwhile in the discovery of very recent drug use (on the job for example) and in situations where you want to know what the degree of intoxication is (at the scene of a car accident for example). Detection Times for Saliva Based Drug Panels 1. Marijuana & Hashish: One to 24 hours 2. Cocaine & Crack: From the moment of ingestion to 72 hours 3. Opiates such as heroin: From ingestion to 72 hours 4. Methamphetamine and ecstasy: From ingestion to 96 hours 5. Benzodiazepines: From ingestion to 72 hours 6. Amphetamines: Immediately 7. Phencyclidine (PCP): Immediately Disadvantages of Saliva Based Drug Panels 1. Not all drugs are detected with saliva based testing. 2. Saliva drug tests are not accepted for use with the DOT Federal Mandated Drug Testing. 3. Bio-Hazard alert: as with every bodily fluids, heed ought to be taken to handle the saliva sample with care though saliva is not considered a bio-hazard except if it is tainted with blood. 4. Saliva based testing cannot reveal long-term drug testing. For this reason, many employers are starting to use other drug testing methods in addition to oral drug testing.
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