You may be working in a company which needs regular standard drug tests. A drug test can use a sample of your hair, saliva, or urine. It is to your both professional and personal benefit for the test to turn out negative. The right way to pass drug tests is to understand how long the drugs you consume remain in the system. This will allow you to discontinue their use after a given amount of time.
Urine test
You should note that urine tests are common drug tests. Thus, if the employer needs to carry out a drug test, he or she is likely to offer to ask you to provide a urine sample. It is quite rare for the employer to ask hair, saliva, or blood test. A urine test can be done privately. Laboratory employees can also observe it.
Medications
You should know that false positive drug tests do happen even in reputable, licensed laboratories. This is because some prescription medications, herbal remedies, and over-the-counter drugs may be mistaken for certain drugs during the test. To ensure that your drug test does not result in a positive result, you should come up with a list of different medications and give the list to your employer plus supporting documentation.
Drugs being tested
Usually, you will be informed about the drugs they are testing you for. The good thing about urine tests is that they can detect a broad range of substances found in the body. Drugs tested for are dependent on several factors such as your legal or personal history, legal guidelines, job requirements, or even occurrence of accidents in the workplace. The common drugs that are tested are:
- Cocaine
- Marijuana
- Opiates
- Amphetamines
- Phencyclidine (PCP)
Although the above are the common drugs that are tested by employers, they may add other drugs for screening. These include:
- Alcohol
- Benzodiazepines
- MDMA
- Barbiturates
You should note that the urine test is used to test your past use of drugs over the last few days or even weeks. You can also use synthetic urine to get negative results. Usually, habitual users will have large concentrations of the drugs in their systems as compared to occasional drug users. Other factors which are likely to affect concentration of drugs in the system include amount and quality of drugs taken, your metabolism, overall health, and hydration levels. A urine test will turn positive if you have used the above drugs in the last five days.