Hair Drug Test the future
Hair Drug Testing is one of the newest forms of drug testing, and also one of the most unique. As implied by the name, hair drug testing takes a sample of hair from the subject whom is being tested. This hair than is given over to a laboratory where they do the folic testing on it to determine if any illegal substances are present in the sample.
There are 5 drugs that must be checked for in a hair drug test by government mandate. These drugs are: cocaine (cocaine and benzoylecgonine), marijuana (THC), Opiates (Codeine, Morphine & 6-monacteyl morphine), Methamphetamine (Meth, Amphetamine & Ecstasy), and Phencyclidine (PCP). Although these drugs are the only drugs which MUST be tested for, most companies developing the hair drug test kits are allowing them to pick up traces of other drugs as well such as MDMA which is commonly found in ecstasy, and Amphetamines.
Hair drug testing, as with all forms, has its pros and cons. Over all, a hair drug test is used to give a broader spectrum of ones drug use. Other methods of drug testing typically test for abuse no longer than a week ago, but hair drug testing can test up to and beyond a year. This is possible because of the science behind the hair test. When someone abuses a drug the drug remains in their blood stream only until it is processed and cleaned by our kidneys, but in hair there is no self cleaner. This means that all drugs abused remain in the hair until the hair dies or is cut off. Because it encases itself in hair it has become more and more popular for long range drug testing because of its ability to detect abuse up to a year and as well as its inability to be tampered with.
With conventional tests such as blood and urine, there are a number of products on the market which can skew the results of a test in the favor of the individual being tested. The recent bench mark with hair drug testing is that it cannot be hampered, and any individual who submits their hair for testing cannot alter the results by ingesting chemicals to ‘clean’ or ‘cancel out’ the drugs that the individual has used. However, it does not always offer the clearest picture into abuse if the candidate has just recently abused a drug. In this instance a blood or urine test would work best.
As with any medical technique, there are pros and cons. The pros as listed above are length of detection time, and its inability to be tampered with. The draw backs to the hair drug test are simple. The test subject must have almost 2inches of hair from which to sample. Two inches will get a reading back to the lab of over 90 days, where as anything less than this will significantly shorten the length of time that the test will show results for. Therefore, it is certainly fair to say that although the hair drug test is certainly a break through technique, there is still a need for blood and urine testing. It is through the combinations of these tests however, hair drug test and blood or urine test, than one could build a reliable profile to show an individuals drug use and abuse.
Disclaimer: Cliff Schaffer does not personally endorse or support any of the comments made within the writings of this article. |
