Drug testing laws have become a particular point of interest in recent months with increased celebrities’ bouts of trouble with the law bringing attention to the subject, But beyond the topic of shaved heads, DUIs, and rehab stints comes the question of legality. Are these tests legal and are they accurate? It might all depend on where you reside and what your circumstances are.

With more media attention than ever being drawn to ill-fated celebrities who have DUI mishaps and drug related issues, it might be interesting to know what all of the hype is concerning the drug testing laws. And yes, alcohol would fall under drug testing laws since in most states consent for a breath test must be given. What are drug testing laws, and how does a drug test work? Are drug tests reliable in detecting what they are supposed to detect? When are drug tests necessary?

Depending on the state, each one has its own version of what amount of alcohol can consider a person to be legally intoxicated, and of course personal variables like a person’s size can help make this even more difficult to determine. Drugs are something that are not so tangible: if they are in your system, you are intoxicated and in violation of the law. Drug tests of several different types can be used to determine your intoxication [or innocence] and then what happens from there is dependent upon the state.

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In this day and age, it is pretty clear that drugs are out there, and it is easy for kids to get a hold of some if they want it. The bad thing is that drugs are no longer just found out on the streets, they can be found in your local school systems as well. However, there are different schools that do yearly drug tests on the students of that school. This is a good way to help keep kids off of drugs, and also inform the parents if their child is on drugs of any kind. This is the first big step to help keep our kids drug free, and keep our school system free from drugs as well.

Kids are able to get their hands on drugs a lot easier today than they used to a long time ago. Because of this fact, we are starting to see drugs pop up in locations that it should not, like our local school systems. This should be one place where your child can go where they do not have to worry about being confronted with drugs, however, that is not the case anymore. The good news is that many different schools are taking the right steps to help discourage kids from using drugs. In fact, in many schools across the United States of America, yearly drug tests are given on untold days to randomly screen for drugs. Because drugs stay in the system for a long time, it is hard for students to just not take any drugs before the drug test, because they are never sure when it is going to be. Because of the fear of the drug testing, this helps keep many kids from trying drugs in the first place. That makes just one less thing they have to worry about.

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Drug Detection Times refer to the “window” of detection for drugs of abuse. If a person is tested too soon or too long after use, drugs may not show up in human urine. Often someone will ask us, How long to drugs stay in the body? This short guide will help to answer that question. For the purposes of clarity, this guide is a reference for the detection of drugs of abuse found in human urine.

How long do drugs stay in your system? The length of time that the presence of drugs of abuse in the body can be detected is an important factor in drug screening. The chart below outlines approximate duration times. When interpreting the duration for the presence of drugs of abuse in the body, you must take into consideration variables including the body’s metabolism, the subjects physical condition, overall body fluid balance, state of hydration and frequency of usage.

Drug Detection Times in urine are expressed below in terms of lower and upper boundaries. The amount of time that a drug/metabolite remains detectable in urine can vary, depending on the following factors:

• Amount and Frequency of Use: Single, isolated, small doses are generally detectable at the lower boundary. Chronic and long-term use typically result in detection periods near or at the upper boundary.
• Age: In general, human metabolism slows with age, resulting in longer drug detection periods.
• Body Mass: In general, human metabolism slows with increased body mass, resulting in longer drug detection periods. In addition, THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) and PCP are known to accumulate in fatty lipid tissue. Chronic users, physically inactive users, and individuals with a high percentage of body fat in relation to total body mass are prone to longer drug detection periods for THC and PCP.
• Metabolic Rate: Individuals with slower body metabolism are prone to longer drug detection periods.
• Drug Tolerance: Users typically metabolize a drug faster once a tolerance to the drug is established.
• Overall Health: In general, human metabolism slows during periods of deteriorating health, resulting in longer drug detection periods.
• Urine pH: Urine pH can impact drug detection periods. Typically, highly acidic urine results in shorter drug detection periods.
• Note: In a small percentage of cases, users may test positive longer than times shown - most notably in cases of long-term chronic abuse, in individuals with significant body mass and/or body fat, and in individuals with health related issues resulting in abnormally slow body metabolism…

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http://www.yourdrugtestresults.com/

Tests at YourDrugTestResults.com

Drug testing in the United States basically began in the late 1980’s with the testing of certain federal employees and specified DOT regulated occupations. Drug testing guidelines and processes, in these areas exclusively, are established and regulated (by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, formerly under the direction of the National Institute on Drug Abuse or NIDA) require that companies who use professional drivers, specified safety sensitive transportation and/or oil and gas related occupations, and certain federal employers, test them for the presence of certain drugs. These test classes were established decades ago, and include five specific drug groups. They do not account for current drug usage patterns. For example, the tests do not include “synthetic opiates”, such as oxycodone, oxymorphone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, etc., compounds that are highly abused in America:

• Amphetamines (amphetamines, methamphetamine, speed)
• Cannabinoids (marijuana, hashish)
• Cocaine (cocaine, crack, benzoylecognine)
• Opiates (heroin, opium, codeine, morphine)
• Phencyclidine (PCP)

Drug Testing Kits:

While SAMHSA/NIDA guidelines only allow labs to report quantitative results for the “NIDA-5″ on their official NIDA tests, many drug testing labs and on-site tests also offer a wider or “more appropriate” set of drug screens which are more reflective of current drug abuse patterns. As noted above, these tests include synthetic pain killers such as Oxycodone, Oxymorphone, Hydrocodone, Hydromorphone, benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, Klonopin, Restoril) and barbiturates in other drug panels (a “panel” is a predetermined list of tests to run). The confirmation test (usually GCMS) can tell the difference between methamphetamine and ecstasy, and in the absence of detectable amounts of methamphetamine in the sample, the lab will either report the sample as negative or report it as positive for MDMA…

One in 100 of the drivers tested by Victoria Police’s world-first drug bus has returned a positive result for driving while under the influence of drugs, The Sunday Age believes.

This is 2 times the rate for drivers returning a positive result for driving while under the influence of alcohol when breath tested.

Police had planned to announce the staggering results for the drug bus last week, but delayed doing so because of the Bracks Government’s ministerial reshuffle, which saw Tim Holding elevated to the Police Minister’s portfolio and Andre Haermeyer relegated to Manufacturing, Export and Small Business.

The announcement, now expected to be made within days, is likely to show that more than one in every 100 drivers drug tested by police returned a positive result after laboratory analysis.

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