Origin Diagnostics Drug Testing

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Methadone mimics many of the effects of opiates such as heroin.

Methadone is one of a number of synthetic opiates (also called opioids) that are manufactured for medical use and have similar effects to heroin. These include dihydrocodeine (DF118s), pethidine (often used in childbirth), diconal, palfium and temgesic.

Methadone and subutex (buprenorphine) are used as substitutes for heroin in the treatment of heroin addiction.

Methadone mimics many of the effects of opiates such as heroin. However, there are many differences. For example, heroin produces an almost immediate “rush” or brief period of euphoria, which wears off relatively quickly, resulting in a strong craving to use more heroin. In contrast, methadone has a more gradual onset of action when administered orally. Its effects can last up to 24 hours, which allows the patient to take methadone only once a day without experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Research has demonstrated that, when methadone is given in regular doses by a physician, it has the ability to block the euphoria caused by heroin if the individual does try to take heroin. Despite methadone’s role in the treatment of heroin addiction, it has addictive properties and also a high potential for abuse on the street. Methadone enters the illicit drug market primarily as a result of patients selling their prescriptions.

Methadone doesn’t deliver the same degree of buzz or high like heroin. It allows people to tackle their psychological addiction and stabilize their lifestyle when used as a substitute for heroin in treatment it stops withdrawal symptoms. Then the dose can be reduced slowly until that user is off the drug completely. When used to come off heroin there are still problems with withdrawal but there are much less severe than ‘cold turkey’ that occurs when stopping heroin.

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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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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.