Learn More about Hair Drug Testing
Posted on | March 7, 2010 | Comments Off
As an athlete, are you interested in learning exactly what drug testing involves? If you have are a parent with children, you may be searching for a simple and cheap drug testing method to screen your kids for possible drug use. Maybe you’re an employer who is looking for a faster, cheaper and simpler way to screen prospective employees for drug use. It doesn’t matter why you need to find an effective drug testing solution – the answer is hair drug testing! Although you may have read about this form of drug testing, you may want to better understand the process. There are many reasons why hair drug testing is increasing in popularity.
What is Involved with Hair Drug Testing?
First of all, it is important to learn how this type of drug testing works. In a hair follicle drug test, approximately 50 1-inch hair strands are collected from an individual. The hair strands can be removed from any body part, not just your head. At that point, your hair strands will be mailed in an envelope to a laboratory to be analyzed. Because any type of drugs deposit residue that becomes trapped in a person’s hair follicles, a hair follicle drug test can detect drug use. This type of drug testing method can be used to find traces of any type of drug such as marijuana, heroine, PCP, methamphetamine and ecstasy.
Is This Method Accurate?
Many people prefer to use hair drug testing because it offers a much higher accuracy rate than other methods. In fact, a hair follicle drug test can produce results that are as much as 10 times more accurate than other types of drug tests. Therefore, it is often used by a wide variety of people who need to screen others for possible drug use.
Why is Hair Drug Testing So Popular?
In addition to the higher accuracy rate, a hair follicle drug test also produces much faster results and is very inexpensive. When compared to saliva or urine tests, it is much more convenient and easier to obtain hair samples. It is completely non-invasive, unlike many other types of drug testing. Moreover, hair drug testing offers the benefit of being able to screen individuals for possible drug use dating back to 3 months. This is a much longer time frame of detection than other current drug testing methods.