Origin Diagnostics Drug Testing

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Legal Considerations When Establishing a Drug-Testing Policy

* Employers who plan on conducting drug testing should, before the first test is ordered, establish a written policy governing when the testing will take place and how it will be performed. Having this information in place may help resolve any questions that arise in the future as to whether a particular test should be conducted, or whether it was conducted properly.

* Employers should also establish what type of drugs will be tested for. For example, the employer may only wish to test for cocaine, or may also wish to test for opiates, amphetamines, and the other drugs for which testing is available.

* Employers should also develop a written policy concerning what will happen to an applicant who tests positive for drug use. This type of planning can alleviate future issues concerning how applicants with positive results are handled. For many employers, positive results may mean that those applicants will automatically not be hired. Other employers may wish to give applicants a second chance or may, if such applicants are hired, ask that they participate in employer-sponsored drug or alcohol counseling as a condition of their employment.

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Drugs affect every person differently, and so drugs will be metabolised by every person differently. Drug testing results are always unique to the individual. This means that there are certain factors about you and your drug use that can affect these results. These include:

the strength of the drug
how much you use
how you use it
how often you use it
what other drugs you use.

Results are also affected by your unique body, such as your:

tolerance
sex and age
overall health and wellbeing
metabolism
mood and the environment you are in.

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According to a news report from the Los Angeles Times New Service, a study of 161 prescription and over the counter medications showed that 65 of them produced false positive drug test results in the most widely administered urine drug test procedure. Ronald Siegel, a psychopharmacologist at UCLA said ‘The widespread testing and reliance on tell-tale traces of drugs in the urine is simply a panic reaction invoked because the normal techniques for controlling drug use haven’t worked very well. The next epidemic will be testing abuse.” Currently there are more than 250 over-the-counter medications and prescription drugs that can cause false positives.  

Click on links to find false positive drugs:

Marijuana (THC)
Tricyclic Antidepressants (TCA)
Barbiturates (BAR)
Buprenorphine (BUP)
Benzodiazepines (BZO)
Phencyclidine (PCP)
Methadone (MTD)
Oxycodone (OXY)
Methamphetamine (MAMP)
Amphetamines (AMP)
Propoxyphene (PPX)
Opiates and Morphine (OPI or MOR)

Note: Cocaine (COC) and Ecstasy (MDMA) has no cross reaction drugs at this time.

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The term opiate refers to the alkaloids found in opium, an extract from the seed pods of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.). It has also traditionally referred to natural and semi-synthetic derivatives of morphine. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to all drugs with opium-/morphine-like pharmacological action, which are more properly classified under the broader term opioid.

Opiates are primarily central nervous system (CNS) depressants and narcotic analgesics. The use of opiates typically creates physical as well as psychological dependence and tolerance. Opium is the milky latex fluid contained in the unripened seed pod of the opium poppy (papaver somniferum).

Opium contains a number of different alkaloids. But only one family of alkaloids, the phemanthrene alkaloids, can be converted to narcotic substances. It is this highly addictive family of alkaloids and their derivatives that are controlled by national and international law. From this family comes morphine, codeine, and thebaine – the natural opiates The semi-synthetic opiates are then derived from these substances.

Make sure you drug test your employees and teens for Opiates.

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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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The method of collecting a urine sample for drug screening can be important. Some illicit drug users may attempt to substitute another person’s urine, or chemically alter their own specimen. If the urine drug screen is being used for an important decision, such as employment or legal action, procedures to minimize chances of an adulterated or substituted sample may be necessary. These include measuring the temperature or pH of the sample immediately after it is procured, and using tamper-proof containers. Supervised specimen collection may be conducted to ensure that the urine indeed comes from the person being screened.

The most commonly used method for urine drug screening is immunoassay, a rapid and accurate test that uses antibodies embedded on test strips to reveal drug use. Antibodies react only in the presence of very specific substances—in this case, drugs present in urine. When a sufficient concentration of a drug (or drugs) are present, the test strip will indicate which substances have been detected. A control band on each strip confirms that the test was done correctly.

Positive screening results should always be confirmed by a more sensitive method. The most widely accepted corroborative test for all drugs is gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), which can determine the specific substances in the body by recognizing not only the molecular structure of the original compound, but also its metabolite, a chemical created when the drug is metabolized.

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Here is a brief and interesting description of how a saliva drug test is performed, its advantages and disadvantages over other forms of drug tests. It also provides some saliva drug test facts for those who are curious to know about this test.

Drug testing has become mandatory in various workplaces and in the field of sports. It can be performed in a number of ways. Drugs can be tested with saliva, blood, urine or hair samples. Nowadays, saliva drug testing is being widely used. It owes its popularity to the simplicity, easiness, comfortableness in usage, and its ability to give fast, yet reliable results. Interested in knowing more on saliva drug testing, then keep reading the below-mentioned saliva drug test facts, its merits and demerits.

Important Saliva Drug Test Facts

• Saliva is a refined version of plasma, that has the capability to contain trace amounts of drugs and their ensuing metabolites for a period of 24-36 hours. This forms the basis of saliva drug test. It is also known as oral fluid drug test.
• The saliva drug test kits comes in many forms and shapes. The general way of using such a kit is to place it in the mouth of the individual being tested. The kit draws the saliva through a membrane. The membrane allows saliva to wet the strips containing media of antigen dyes. The antigen dyes act as an indicator. Formation of color on the strip suggests a positive result. There is a particular color for each drug in question.
• Saliva drug test can detect the following drugs. The detection time for each drug is given against them:
  • Alcohol – from time of intake to 12 hours.
  • PCP – from a few minutes after ingestion to the next three days.
  • Methamphetamine and ecstasy – half an hour from ingestion up to 3 days.
  • Amphetamines – a few minutes to 3 days of consumption.
  • Barbiturates – less than an hour after ingestion up to 3 days.
  • Opiates – from an hour after intake to 3 days.
  • Cocaine – a few minutes after ingestion up to one day.
  • Benzodiazepines – not yet known
  • Cannabis – a few minutes after ingestion up to one day.

Advantages of Saliva Drug Test

• The cost of saliva drug test is cheaper than the drug tests based on hair or blood. Generally, its cost lies anywhere between $15-$75.
• Saliva drug test gives results within a time period of 5-15 minutes. This allows fast interpretation.
• It is a donor-friendly and easy-to-collect method of drug testing. There is no need for a bathroom too, in order to collect the sample, and hence saliva drug testing is non-intrusive as well. The donor has no chance to adulterate his/her saliva as the sample is collected under direct supervision.
• Saliva drug test test can detect eight different drugs, with five-six types of drugs at a time. This makes this drug testing method as the most potential indicator of adulteration.
• Experts take saliva drug testing method as the best way to detect the recent use of any prohibited drugs.
• It can be performed at any location. It does not require a clinical technician to conduct it and read the result.
• Because of the convenience, easiness and ability to give fast results, saliva drug test is widely used by the employers as pre-employment drug testing. Read more on random drug testing in the workplace.

Disadvantages of Saliva Drug Test

• Saliva drug testing method is not approved by SAMHSA for use with DOT or Federal Mandated Drug Testing.
• Saliva, being an oral fluid, is not counted as a biological hazard as long as it does not show the presence of blood in it. Care needs to be taken while handling it, as it might contain pathogenic micro-organisms.
• The biggest disadvantage of saliva drug testing is its short drug detection time limitation. Most drugs do not remain present in saliva and disappear after 12-24 hours of consumption. This facts limits its usage in drug detection to situations where recent drug ingestion needs to be determined such as in the case of vehicle drivers, employees at work, etc.
• The above reason also makes it difficult to determine past or long term drug use, as anyone can pass the saliva drug test by not taking the drug for the recent 2-3 days.
• Saliva drug testing is reliable for the detection of Methamphetamine and Opiates, but comparatively less sensitive to THC and Cannabinoids.
• It is comparatively more expensive than urine test.
• Some medicines such as Ibuprofen, Motrin, Advil can give false positive drug tests.
• Saliva drug test is quite inferior in comparison with hair drug test. The latter not only gives historical information with the types of drugs being taken, but a somewhat accurate data about the quantity and frequency of the drug usage as well.
• Saliva drug test cannot beat the efficiency of hair drug testing. When the hair follicles receive the drug metabolites dissolved in blood, they tend to trap them within. This is the most reliable source of information about drug addiction.
• Saliva drug testing does not follow any nationally accepted standards or cutoff concentration for detection. Therefore, the results mainly depend on a particular product purchased. Hence, the result is less reliable and most of the times not accepted in legal proceedings.
• One can easily pass the saliva drug test by various ways. According to various websites giving information on “how to beat a drug test”, eating certain foodstuffs can alter the production of saliva. Smoking is also believed to mask the metabolites needed for drug determination. However, the best way of passing a drug test is to stay away from drugs themselves.

Hopefully, this article must have provided vital answers to some saliva drug test FAQs, that you might be having and has shed some light on the lesser known saliva drug test facts.

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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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Drug Testing Programs

A drug-testing program should not be implemented without first establishing policies and procedures. The most common type of testing program is pre-employment. Courts have consistently upheld the legality of requiring a pre-employment drug test as a condition of employment. It is a best practice to obtain a consent and to clearly indicate drug testing is a requirement for employment.

If a firm plans to conduct post-hiring testing for current employees, then the employer should include training and education for supervisors and employees, as well as guidelines for discipline in the event of a positive test. Post employment testing includes random testing (for safety sensitive positions), individualized suspicion testing, post accident testing, and testing that is legally required in certain industries, such as Department of Transportation (DOT) requirements concerning truck drivers. Each of these types of testing is legally sensitive, and an employer should have a program in place before starting.

Although the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and similar state laws provides protection for people who are in rehabilitation for a drug addition, the ADA does not protect people currently using illegal drugs, and does not effect drug testing.