With more companies increasing their hiring due to a rebounding American economy, testing for drug and alcohol use remains a vital tool in the hiring process for most employers.

Multiple surveys reported that a large majority of American companies performed drug and alcohol testing on their workforce, either through oral drug testing, urine drug tests or saliva drug tests. This increasing trend is likely due to increased education and a better understanding of the negative consequences involved with drug and alcohol use and abuse in the workplace.

The majority of employers start their drug testing on job candidates—an overwhelming majority of employers report that candidates are subject to drug testing. But it’s not only limited to job applicants. With companies looking to minimize risk inside their organizations, more of them are requiring drug tests for current employees.

Due to the increased availability of high quality oral drug tests, urine drug testing kits and saliva drug testing kits, employers responded that current employees are subject to drug or alcohol testing due to strengthened mandates to maintain drug free working environments. And it doesn’t just end when the employee gets the job.

Most employers believe that conducting random drug tests and under reasonable cause enhances the drug free working environments they are promoting, with double digit yearly increases in the frequency of this testing over the past two years.

Urine drug tests remain the most common drug test becasue of the ease of testing, cost- effectiveness, and widespread knowledge by most subjects. Oral saliva drug testing kits and other oral drug testing kits are growing in popularity, with a double digit jump in popularity over the past two years.

Medical Marijuana - An Issue Coming to the Forefront

Medical marijuana continues to be a hotly debated subject for companies. Nineteen states have approved its medical use in one way or another. Washington and Colorado approved the recreational use of marijuana, but since federal law prohibits all types of marijuana use, most companies are continuing their zero-tolerance policies for marijuana, and are hesitant to accept medical marijuana.

The number of organizations that have a medical marijuana policy recognizing the differences between medical and unauthorized use has decreased slightly from 14% to 12% in the past year. This further shows that most organizations are reluctant to demonstrate acceptance of medical marijuana use. 

Pre-Employment Drug Screening Tests are detect the presence or confirm the absence of drugs and their metabolites in a potential employees urine sample. According to the United States Department of Labor, drug use in the workplace costs employers between $75 and $100 billion dollars annually in lost productivity, increased health care costs, employee accidents and increased workers compensation costs.

In today’s challenging business environment, a policy which includes pre-employment drug testing (including oral drug tests and urine drug tests) makes good business sense. Fortune 500 companies have tested their employees for drugs for years in order to minimize the impact of drug abuse in the workplace. Some of these consequences include employee absenteeism, tardiness, theft, crime and violence, turnover, and decreased productivity. A large percentage of accidents on the job can be blamed on drugs or alcohol. The cost of your employers healthcare also increases when there is drug or alcohol abuse in the workplace. Drug abusers use more health care benefits and much more likely to file workers compensation claims than non-drug abusers.

It’s a difficult battle for an employer to fight. With the increased popularity of recreational drugs and the widescale abuse of prescription medication, employers are faced with formidable opposition to ensure a drug free work environment. But with the ease and non-invasiveness of both oral drug tests and urine drug testing, it makes good sense for business owners to take advantage of these tests to guarantee safe, drug free work environments. 

Oral drug testing involves the collection of saliva samples from a person where it is screened and subjected to testing that determines whether drugs are in their system. This simple, instant test has many advantages, but should also be weighed against its disadvantages.

Oral Drug Testing Advantages

Oral drug testing is an easy, non-invasive test that provides little inconvenience, and is pain and discomfort free to the person being tested. There are two methods for oral drug testing, both of which involve easy sample collection. The donor provides saliva for the test in either a small, clean paper cup or it can be taken from the inside of their mouths by using a clean swab. Because it’s non-invasive, collection of the saliva samples can be done under supervision, lessening the chances of a tainted result.

These oral drug testing kits provide instant results, and can be analyzed by anyone. They are also highly effective. Oral drug tests can also detect recent drug use, something that blood and urine drug testing, which may take a number of days for metabolites of the drugs being in a person’s system to detect, may miss.

Oral drug testing, and oral drug testing kits, are very inexpensive. The ability to provide instant results also makes them cheaper since results do not need to be verified by a laboratory.

Oral Drug Testing Disadvantages

There are a number of disadvantages to oral drug tests to consider. The first is the limited time that drugs can be detected in a persons saliva. Generally, they don’t last for more than a few days. In most cases, in order for the oral drug test to be effective, it must be given to the person at a time not long after drug ingestion. Because of this limited detection time, it is also difficult to determine whether or not the person being tested is a habitual narcotic user.

Contamination is also a factor. There are a number of different foods and otherwise legal medicines or products that can affect oral drug testing results. Examples could include things like cough medicines with codeine, which would indicate a positive test for opiates and could be misinterpreted as illegal drug use when it is, in fact, perfectly legal. Other legal products, such as mouthwash, can also the results of oral drug testing

Some drugs hardly appear in saliva and therefore, may not be detected using oral tests while others can cause dry mouth. The donor may then not be able to provide adequate saliva in order for the test to be done properly.

Conclusions

While oral drug testing and oral drug testing kits are simple, inexpensive tests to perform, they must also be done quickly because of the limited detection time and possible contamination risks.