Ever wonder if someone you know is using drugs? Worried that your child might be experimenting with illicit substances? Or do you want to check if your employees are using illegal drugs? Whatever the reasons are, an instant drug test may give you the answers. Instant and Home drug tests are designed to detect a variety of common illegal drugs typically in urine and saliva specimens. You don’t need to go to a lab and all you need is the right kind of kit. You can even easily get it online at DrugTesting.Com!
In this post, we will cover how Easy Home Drug Test kits work, how they differ from lab-based drug tests, how accurate they are, who might use them and which ones are best for different purposes.
What are home drug tests and how do they work?
Home drug tests are a type of kit that can detect different drugs in various bodily fluids. The most common types include urine and saliva.
Tests for home use have been designed to give accurate results with similar sensitivity as lab-based testing methods using professional equipment. They work by examining small samples which you collect yourself and “instantly” check the results yourself after a prescribed amount of time which is typically around 5-10 minutes.
Depending on the type of kit you will buy, the tests can detect from 4 up to 14 or more different substances including marijuana, amphetamines, barbiturates, ecstasy, cocaine, etc. in both urine and saliva.
Instant and easy, home drug tests have a small absorbent material inside that’s usually hidden under an adhesive film or paper tab. When you add your sample, either urine or saliva, the compounds in your sample will react to these materials and change their color.
You’ll have to check out the instructions to know the indication of the colors or lines – whether certain chemicals are indicating the presence or absence of substances.
How do instant or home drug tests differ from lab-based drug tests?
Laboratory-based drug tests provide a great deal of information about the specimen, including how many of the drugs are in the sample. This is important because it may tell health care providers, for instance, if there has been chronic or episodic use and helps to determine what treatment options should be recommended.
Home drug-test kits on the other hand only indicate that a particular type of drug is present in urine or saliva but not how much of it is present. As such they cannot detect recent usage patterns (such as occasional vs heavy user) nor can these home drug tests help gauge addiction severity etc.
This means home drug tests cannot help assessing addiction severity or recent usage patterns like episodic vs chronic use nor determine whether someone has recently consumed marijuana or is currently under the influence. As such, home drug kits should not be relied upon for making critical decisions about treatment options and do not indicate if anyone might need immediate medical attention.
Laboratory analysis by contrast provides more information that could help determine which type of addiction treatment program is most appropriate for a given person or more quantitative results in terms of how much of a given substance was present in the sample.
How accurate are home drug tests?
In general, the accuracy of home drug tests is comparable to that of laboratory-based testing. In fact, according to the U.S Food and Drug Administration, while no drug tests of any kind are 100% accurate these tests are very sensitive to the presence of drugs in the specimen. However, they do have their limitations and will only indicate the presence of what drugs you are testing. The results will either be presumptive positive (drugs present) or negative (no drugs). It’s always a good idea to send the sample on to a lab for testing if there is a presumptive positive result if you need to know more as some medications, for instance, can affect drug tests of all kinds.
Furthermore, other factors can also contribute to the accuracy of the test. The length of time needed after using a drug before testing will be accurate varies depending on which substance was used. For instance, cocaine can only be detected in urine about 2-6 hours after use but can remain detectable for up to 2 to 3 days after use.
How to use a home drug test?
An Easy Home Drug Test is administered by collecting a urine sample in the provided cup or swab saliva and then waiting for it to develop. It’s important to read package instructions carefully before using any type of home drug test so you know how to conduct the test, how long you need to wait for results, and what happens if your test is inconclusive.
- Typically, a drug test result is negative if you see two lines in both the Control (C) and Test (T) regions. The lines can have varying colors, but if there are two lines, the result is negative.
- Typically, if there is only one line in the control region (C), the drug test results show that the specimen is positive for drugs.
- Usually, If there are no lines or one line in the “T” region, then it means an invalid result. It can be due to several factors like there was not enough urine, something went wrong with the testing process, or if someone accidentally or intentionally did something to compromise the specimen.
What home drug test options are available and which ones should I choose?
Instant or home drug tests are sometimes referred to as panel drug tests. A drug panel is a set of drugs that are tested for. There are different types of drug panels, some more comprehensive than others such as amphetamine only, marijuana only, opiate only, or cocaine-opiates-marijuana. It’s important to know what you want to find out before deciding on the best drug panel to order.
In many industries, a 5-panel drug test is the most common choice. However, your choice should depend entirely on what your company needs or what requirements are necessary for a specific job description etc. One benefit of using this of test however is that because it is typically much less expensive than the lab based alternative you may be able to test for far more substances or panels than might fit your budget otherwise.
Conclusion
Drug testing is an important part of many industries and essential for safety. This includes fields like healthcare, field services, manufacturing plants, or other jobs that have heavy machinery or safety concerns in the workplace. When you need to know if your home or workplace is free of drugs, a quick and easy drug test may provide the answers you seek. Take control over what happens in your home or company by getting started with an easy, fast, and reliable home drug test kit from DrugTesting.Com.
