Drug Testing 2 Essay, Research Paper

DRUG TESTING

Drug tests are a chemical analysis used to detect the presence of drugs in a small sample of urine or sometimes in blood. There are six types of drug testing: Pre-employment, Random, For-cause, Periodically Announced, Post-accident, and Rehabilitation. Pre-employment is testing that is done in a work place after you begin working and they only get to keep working if they pass the drug test. Random drug testing is testing without the person knowing on an advanced notice. For-cause testing is testing where the one who is testing has to have a probable cause or reasonable suspicion for testing. Periodically announced testing is when employees are given an advance notice of the date and time of the testing. Post-accident testing is when an on-the-job employee is involved in an accident or a serious injury. Rehabilitation testing is when a person is in a rehabilitation program.

The amount of time a drug can be detected is very important in drug screening. Marijuana stay s in the system according to the level of usage. Single use it stay s in about three days, moderate use four days, heavy use seven days, and chronic heavy use twenty-one to thirty days. Cocaine stay s in the system two-three days no matter how much you use it. Opiates stay in the system two days no matter how much you use them. PCP or Phencyclidine stay s in three-eight days no matter how much you use it. Amp s or Amphetamines stay in the system two-four days no matter how much you use them. This does not apply to anyone some people it is different if depends on how much you weigh and how much fluid intake per day. Drug test are not always One Hundred percent right these kind of test are called false positives. False positives are test that show they have used when they have not. (Hawley 73)

Some people try to flush out their system by drinking a lot of water but that does not always work and the doctors can tell if you have diluted your urine with water. You can also buy dehydrated urine out of certain magazines or on the Internet. There are many ways around a drug test but not all of them are true. (Berger 49)

The methods they use to test urine are enzyme immunoassay, radioimmunoassay, thin layer chromatography, and gas chromatography or it is sometime called mass spectrometry. With enzyme immunoassay a drop of urine is placed into the machine and it goes threw ten separate channels where each channel test for a different kind of drug. Radioimmunoassay adds antibodies to your urine so it can detect the drug that has been used. It separates all the free antibodies from the sample of urine. Thin-layer chromatography works with a glass plate that is covered with a thin layer of jellylike substance. A drop of urine is applied near one edge of the gel surface. The gel shows what kind of drugs are in the system. The Gas chromatography is the only test that claims to be 99.9 percent accurate. It is a $15,000 machine. It works by injecting a tiny bit of urine into a port and there are gases that determine what drugs have been used.