Drug tests can identify illegal and legal drugs in urine, blood, hair, saliva, tissue, or sweat. Prescription and over-the-counter medications can affect results. Tests are used for employment, sports, insurance, and forensic purposes. Poppy seeds can generate false positives.
A drug test, or toxicology test, identifies the presence of illegal drugs, such as cocaine, heroin and cannabis, as well as legal drugs such as alcohol or nicotine. Urine or blood samples are often used for drug testing. These tests can be done for a variety of reasons, and people preparing to take a drug test should be aware of what factors can affect drug test results.
Toxicology tests can be used to isolate a variety of drugs, either by identifying the substances themselves or their metabolites, which are the materials formed after the body has metabolized the compound. In the United States these tests are usually conducted on blood or urine samples, although sometimes hair, saliva, tissue, or even sweat may be used. For the UK and Canada, hair has been used in the courts as evidence of illegal drug use. According to some sources, the substances can remain in the hair for considerably long periods of time and are often unaffected by hair dyes and other hair products.
Blood samples are usually taken from the arm. The most accurate urine samples for a drug test are clean, intermediate samples. Sometimes the temperature of the urine is taken to make sure it is from the real person being screened.
A person undergoing a drug test should provide a list of prescription and over-the-counter medications, including cold medications and nutritional and herbal supplements, that they normally take. These substances can sometimes affect the outcome of a drug test. For example, prior to 1998, ibuprofen could produce a false positive result on drug tests, although more specific drug tests have corrected this problem. Some state that consuming poppy seeds can generate false positive results, although others state that dozens of poppy seed bagels would have to be consumed for this to happen. To be on the safe side, it’s probably best to avoid poppy seeds before a drug test.
Drug tests may be requested for a variety of purposes. For example, they are often used by companies to screen prospective and current employees, and are used in sports to detect the presence of steroids in athletes. Insurance companies may order customers to have blood and urine tests to evaluate for the presence of illegal or legal drugs, such as nicotine or alcohol. Drug tests can also be used for forensic purposes, as part of an autopsy or to discover the use of a date-rape drug.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
