Origin Diagnostics Drug Testing

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Adulteration is the intentional tampering with a urine sample by the donor to avoid detection of illicit drug use. Successful adulteration produces a false-negative drug test result.

Adulterants have often been used to mask the presence of an illicit drug and thus cheat a drug test. Because most urine collection procedures do not involve direct supervision, it is possible to add adulterants after specimen collection. Household chemicals, such as bleach, acid, vinegar, lemon juice, eye drops and table salt are routinely used to beat drug tests. These agents can cause false negative test results from the immunoassays used in urine drugs of abuse testing. However, specimen integrity tests can detect the presence of such adulterants because of altered pH, specific gravity and/or temperature.

More recently, commercial adulterants with names like Stealth, Klear and Urine Luck have become available on the Internet. These adulterants, when added to urine, can cause false negative results in drugs-of-abuse immunoassays, as well as in some gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) confirmation tests. These commercial adulterants some times cannot be detected by routine specimen integrity testing. Recently, however, spot tests have been described to detect these adulterants.

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Street Names: Downers, Nerve Pills, Tranks

Description: The benzodiazepines are central nervous system (CNS) depressants commonly prescribed for the short-term treatment of anxiety and insomnia. Chlordiazepoxide (Librium) was the first benzodiazepine produced. Diazepam (Valium) was the next to be developed and until the early 1980′s this was the most widely prescribed tranquillizer in the world. Today, newer benzodiazepines such as alprazolam (Xanax) and lorazepam (Ativan) account for most tranquillizer prescriptions.
Benzodiazepines can be detected in urine drug screening from 10 days to 10 weeks depending on usage.

The widespread availability of benzodiazepines has made them common as drugs of abuse. Long-term users typically develop a tolerance to the drugs, requiring larger doses to achieve the desired effects. A psychological and/or physical dependence can develop, making it difficult to discontinue use. Some drug abusers take benzodiazepines to bring them down after using stimulants such as ecstasy or cocaine. Others take them to enhance the effects of alcohol. They are also commonly used as replacement drugs when a user’s drug of first choice is not available.

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Buprenorphine is an opioid partial agonist. This means that, although buprenorphine is an opioid, and thus can produce typical opioid agonist effects and side effects such as euphoria and respiratory depression, its maximal effects are less than those of full agonists like heroin and methadone. At low doses buprenorphine produces sufficient agonist effect to enable opioid-addicted individuals to discontinue the misuse of opioids without experiencing withdrawal symptoms. The agonist effects of buprenorphine increase linearly with increasing doses of the drug until at moderate doses they reach a plateau and no longer continue to increase with further increases in dose—the “ceiling effect.” Thus, buprenorphine carries a lower risk of abuse, addiction, and side effects compared to full opioid agonists. In fact, in high doses and under certain circumstances, buprenorphine can actually block the effects of full opioid agonists and can precipitate withdrawal symptoms if administered to an opioid-addicted individual while a full agonist is in the bloodstream.

Buprenorphine has poor oral bioavailability and moderate sublingual bioavailability. Formulations for opioid addiction treatment are in the form of sublingual tablets.

Buprenorphine is highly bound to plasma proteins. It is metabolized by the liver via the cytochrome P4503A4 enzyme system into norbuprenorphine and other metabolites. The half-life of buprenorphine is 24–60 hours.

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The cost to employers from illegal drug abuse is over $100 billion every year:

8.2% of full-time workers are current illicit drug uses
80% of drug abusers steal from their workplace
65% of all work related accidents are the direct result of substance abuse
As many as 50% of all workers’ compensation claims involve substance abuse

Employers have an obligation to provide a safe and healthy working environment. Employees who abuse drugs jeopardize the safety and well being of all employees and impact the bottom line. In these economically challenging times, it is more important than ever to prevent and reduce expenses related to substance abuse.

Each substance abuser costs an employer about $9,600 a year in:

Absenteeism
Low productivity
Loss Time From Accidents
Increased Health Care Costs
Increased Workers Compensation Costs
Loss Time Handling Confrontation/Conflicts

Regardless of which tests are done, drug testing always produces a positive return on investment:

Pre-employment drug testing can significantly improve applicant selectivity for your company. Why not avoid hiring an employee that might decrease safety, productivity and moral in your workplace, and cost you money?
Random drug testing has been shown to be a powerful deterrent to substance abuse in the workplace for existing employees. Such programs reduce accidents, improve productivity and may provide savings on workers compensation insurance premiums.
Reasonable Suspicion and Post-incident drug testing may be valuable in reducing liability in your operations. Reasonable Suspicion/ For Cause drug tests consistently produce the highest positive rates (18%).

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Marijuana is a green or gray mixture of dried, shredded flowers and leaves of the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa). It is the most often used illegal drug in this country. All forms of cannabis are mind-altering (psychoactive) drugs that contain THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the main active chemical in marijuana.

THC is the chemical in marijuana which makes you feel “high” (which means experiencing a change in mood and seeing or feeling things differently). Certain parts of the plant contain higher levels of THC. The flowers or “buds” have more THC than the stems or leaves.

When  marijuana is smoked, THC goes quickly into the blood through the lungs and then to the brain (this is when the “high” is felt and can happen within a few minutes and can last up to five hours). THC is absorbed more slowly into the blood when marijuana is eaten because it has to pass through the stomach and intestine and can take up to one hour to experience the “high” effects, which can last up to 12 hours. THC is absorbed quickly into body fat and is then released very slowly back into the blood. This process can take up to one month for a single dose of THC to fully leave the body.

Marijuana, the most often used illegal drug in this country, is a product of the hemp plant, Cannabis sativa. The main active chemical in marijuana, also present in other forms of cannabis, is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). Of the roughly 400 chemicals found in the cannabis plant, THC affects the brain the most.

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A saliva alcohol test detects the presence of alcohol in the saliva, and are a relatively good approximation of blood alcohol content (BAC).

Due to the fact that the concentration of alcohol in saliva is very likely to be similar to the blood alcohol content that is in the blood, saliva is a preferred method of testing for alcohol when compared with blood alcohol testing.

Saliva alcohol test have the following characteristics:

They are slightly more expensive than urine testing, but less than hair or blood testing.

They are a relatively non-intrusive method of drug testing.

They are becoming more common compared to the other methods of testing.

They are easy to administer but require lab processing for accuracy.

They detect use primarily within the past day or so.

They can detect more recent drug use than other testing methods.

They have no nationally accepted cutoff concentrations or standards for detection. This makes the results more dependent on the specific product employed and could make results less-reliable and/or less acceptable for legal considerations.

Saliva Alcohol Tests Pros

The following list represents the positive aspects of saliva drug tests:

They provide samples that are acquired under direct observation.

They present a minimal risk of tampering.

They spare patients the discomfort of repeated vein punctures.

They are non-invasive.

They present no risk of infection, thrombosis, or anemia.

They present lower total testing costs since no special staff training is required for collection.

They provide for samples that can be collected easily in almost any environment.

They can detect alcohol use.

They reflect recent drug use.

They provide a relatively short window of detection, approximately 10 to 24 hours.

Saliva Alcohol Tests Cons

The following list represents the negative aspects of saliva drug tests:

They present some detection limitation since drugs and drug metabolites do not remain in the saliva as long as they do in the urine.

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Employee drug testing has gained significant importance in organizations as it helps to find out drug abuse problems among employees. Maintaining a drug free environment fosters employee productivity, professionalism, and prevents absenteeism, addiction related crime, accidents, and injuries. Conducting pre-employment and random employee drug testing keeps a check on addiction and ensures prevailing of a safe and productive work environment.

Safety at Work Place

The organizations that conduct employee drug testing can ensure that the work environment is free from any form of addiction related crimes, injures, and accidents. Employee drug testing increases the safety at the job and maintains a safe and secure environment. Conducting pre-employment drug testing can prevent addicted persons from joining the organization and spoil the working environment. Random employee drug testing prevents existing employees to abuse to any kind of drug before coming to workplace.

Improves Productivity and Quality of Work

Employee productivity and professional environment is important for any business establishment. Drug abuse is a potential threat to any organization as it hampers the employee productivity and encourages negative traits and unprofessional behavior. Detecting drug abuse among present and future employees will lead to a healthier working environment. A healthier environment will increase the productivity and quality of work thereby increasing the profits of organization. It has been found that doing away with employees prone to addiction significantly improves productivity in organization and reduces accidents.

Reduces Health Costs of Company

The employee drug testing effectively eliminates the drug addicted employees and cleans the system. Thus, getting rid of such employee can save significant amount of money given by company towards health insurance premiums and other health costs. The addicted employees suffer from sudden mood swings and irrational behavior patterns that can result in work place accidents. The company can save health costs towards medical treatment of such employees due to workplace accidents and illnesses that occur due to addiction. Organizations can also save on recruitment costs towards hiring, firing, and training as employee drug testing ensures that present and future employees are drug abuse free.

Helps in Maintaining Integrity and Discipline

Drug free environment in organizations is a nurturing habitat for positive qualities like integrity, discipline, professionalism, productivity etc. Removing addicted employees ensures that there will be less workplace conflicts, unscrupulous behavior at workplaces. Removing addicted employees will also send a message across other employees that company has zero tolerance towards addiction. This helps to ensure that there is harmonious environment where integrity and discipline is maintained.

Employee drug testing can be effectively performed in organizations using saliva testing, urine testing and hair follicle testing. Saliva testing is non-invasive and provides instant results. Urine drug screening is done using test strips and provides accurate and reliable results. The hair follicle testing is non-invasive and performed in laboratories. It plays an important part in employee drug testing as it can give drug abuse history for much longer period of time.

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Work place drug testing has become almost a must these days and you need to pass one in order to keep your job safe.

The addiction to drugs has increased to such an extent these days that several steps taken in that respect doesn’t prove to be much fruitful. For that reason in the last few years it has been seen that different companies and their employers are putting forth the condition of having cleared a drug test before giving employment to their employees. Not only in different companies but also in several other institutions like schools, sports teams, and many such are also conducting On-Site Drug Test programs to ensure that their candidates are not addicted to drugs. This process is legally acclaimed and almost most of the countries acclaimed the practice.

Therefore if you want to apply for a job in any company and the employer asks you for a drug test, you are bound to go for it and of course pass it in order to get the job. Along with that it is also true that everybody is allowed the choice whether he wants to give a drug test or not. Nobody can force on it. But along with that it is also to be taken for sure that if your employer asks for a drug test and you do not agree with that, you are not going to get the job.

In some companies it is also seen that periodical drug test campaigns are organized. The reason is that the employers want to make sure that their employees have not taken to drug addiction after joining the company. Therefore to keep your job safe you need to be conscious enough that you do not fall pray to the evil clutches of drug addiction anyway.

There are various methods for conducting a drug test. The most effective one is of course the blood test. But besides that there are several other ways to find out traces of drugs in your body. These methods include urine test, saliva test, hair or hair follicle test etc. Let us now discuss about some of these methods.

Let us first take the example of urine test. In this process the urine samples of the candidate is collected. After that this sample is tested with the help of a panel kit. The sample can also be sent to the laboratory for a through testing to be done on it. This process can find the tresses of drugs easily. And this is a very common process used in most of the cases.

Other than the urine test there are other methods also. One such method is the saliva test. The problem with saliva test is that the usage of drugs in only last few days can be tressed. But the usage more than that cannot be found out that easily. Therefore the practice of saliva tests is not that much popular. But in cases where the only the usage of drugs in the recent days is needed this process is applied. In case of hair and hair follicle testing hair samples are collected to found tresses of drugs in the body. With the help of this process the long-term usage of drugs can be found out. But the problem is that in this process recent usage cannot be noticed. The hair follicle test is conducted in case the candidate is not having any hair on his head. This is rather a painful process and is avoided as far as possible.

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Pre-Employment drug testing is very important for the employer as it helps to develop a productive and healthy workforce which ultimately increases profit. It keeps the work place environment drug free and monitors drug and alcohol abuse the work place. Many companies have started random drug testing in the workplace which is a good way to catch hold of the drug user.

It is the duty of the employers to make sure that they provide a hazard-free environment and the best way to identify this problem is to aggressively screen out drug abusers before they become potential employees. Employers can carry out a drug test program for screening job applicants for drug addiction as long as it is in line with federal and state laws.

Drug screening laws are different in every state.  State Drug Law Guidelines

In some states, employers are required to test applicants only when they are formally offered a position conditional to a negative drug test. Other states do not follow this requirement. It is advisable to refer to the department of labor state laws to know more about the laws which apply to matters of employment drug testing in your state.