No matter what the situation may be \u2013 pre-employment, court-ordered, insurance, or otherwise \u2013 drug testing takes an important role in many aspects of our lives today. As such, it\u2019s worth taking a moment to learn more about it no matter what side of the process you\u2019re on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One thing that you\u2019ll want to know about is the different sample methods and how they impact the test. Samples can include blood, hair, urine, or saliva and each one has its pros and cons. Let\u2019s look at each briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saliva<\/strong><\/a> stands out as a popular testing sample option primarily because of the ease of collection. Unlike a blood drug test, it requires little additional training to collect. However, it can only look back a short period of time and testing options in terms of which drugs are looked for are limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A blood drug test<\/strong><\/a> is used by those looking for recent drug use and\/or potential current impairment. However, the blood drug test comes with slightly higher costs and also requires a skilled professional who has been trained in collecting blood in order to complete this type of test. Storage and shipment of the blood specimen is often a challenge. The window of detection of the drug metabolites in blood is short, about 12 – 24 hours. Blood tests are very rarely used for workplace drug testing. Blood drug testing is used many times in emergency room cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBlood<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Hair<\/h2>\n\n\n\n