Drug Screens

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Author: David Holloway

Drug Screens

With something like workplace drug screens, you really have to put a lot of faith in science. Very few people know the lowdown about how the chemistry behind drug tests works, so you have to know if what you are getting is going to work and work well. After all, there is so much at stake. Not only is workplace safety and issue, but so are possible insurance issues, workplace liability, and of course the security of knowing that you are operating a drug-free work place.

That is why, when we decided to start drug screening at the company I manage, we put so much effort into finding the best drug testing supplies. There are literally thousands upon thousands of drug screens, and not all of them are certified to be completely accurate. The interesting thing that many people don't think about is that your average drug screen doesn't test for everything. As a matter of fact, most drug screens test for only a few drugs.

They test for marijuana, cocaine, heroine, and a few others. Certain serious drugs such as alcohol and LSD are commonly left off of many drug tests designed to detect something as innocuous as mild pot usage. If you don't do your research well, you could be canning occasional stoners while letting serious alcoholics come to work drunk with impunity.

There are also many different types of drug screens. Blood drug testing is obviously one of the most reliable, but it is also seen as pretty intrusive. Hair testing can pick up a history of drug usage that goes back a long way. Urine testing is often preferred at work because it is easier to safely do than blood testing and still pretty accurate. Nowadays, there are even some saliva drug tests available as an easy alternative to urine testing.

The problem is that it is hard to get reliable statistics about the comparative quality of different drug screens. It is possible that they are all pretty much the same, but you can't know for sure. That is why we made the decision to use the drug testing products used by our local police department. We figured that, if the cops could use them for screening drugs, so could we. After all, who would know about effective drug testing than the local police force? Although they are a bit more expensive than some other products, so far, we have been happy with the results we have gotten from the tests.