1. Why Home Drug Testing?

Looking at it from an objective point of view, home drug-testing provides a lot of advantages for people who value their privacy among other things. It is also cheaper to buy a do-it-yourself drug testing kit than to go to a drug testing facility and have the examination there. It is less hassle and less worry on your part. It provides anonimity that keeps the sense of privacy surrounding your family intact.

2. Choose Wisely

There are a lot of do-it-yourself drug test kits available in the market today. Some examples of these tests include: urine tests, blood tests, saliva drug tests, etc. By knowing beforehand what kind of test you are pondering to take, you will save on your precious time. The most effective type of drug testing kit is actually the hair testing kit. This can tell you not only if your child has drugs in their system at the time of the test, but over the entirety of the past four months as well!

3. What Can Drug Tests Detect?

- Amphetamines
- Barbiturates
- Cocaine
- Marijuana
- Methamphetamines
- Opiates

These multi-drug tests are very handy as they will screen your loved ones for a wide range of drugs, not just Marijuana. You no longer need to buy a single tester for every type of drug that you fear your children might using. These pose savings for you and again, less hassle.

4. Talk Openly With Your Children

It is critical that you talk openly with your children during the testing process. Let them know that you are doing this because you care so much about them. If you are especially quiet, you can perform a drug test on your child or loved one while they are sleeping – simply clip approximately 40 hairs from them approximately one and one-half inches from the base of their root, and this will suffice for the very effective hair drug test kit. Often, children will be rebellious and feel a lack of trust if you bring up the subject of having a drug test conducted. Let them know that regardless of the result, the main objective isn’t to make things harder on them, but to simply put your mind at ease.

5. Use The Internet

There are are countless websites and companies that offer home drug-testing kits. Look and compare. Find out if there are reviews for the testing kit you are considering to buy. This will be beneficial on your part since you will be able to learn more about the product you are planning to buy as well as comparisons with other products out in the market. Your choices will increase and you will be able to buy the best the market has to offer.

If you still need convincing, consider the Pro-Plus pills to help that late night exam revision, or the aspirin to aid recovery from the excesses of the night before. The list of everyday drugs goes on – coffee, tea, alcohol, over-the-counter and prescription medication, and even chocolate.

There is nothing new about this ‘universal drug habit’. Throughout history, people have used a number of different types of drugs, both naturally occurring and synthetically produced, to alter their mental or physical state.

If drug taking plays such a part in our everyday lives, why are drugs considered to be such a social problem?

The reality is that any substance, whether considered a ‘beneficial’ substance (e.g. analgesic medication or coffee) or a ‘bad’ substance (e.g. LSD or cannabis) is dangerous if abused. The potential danger is not only to the individual concerned, but also to people in close proximity, particularly young dependants, and to the community as a whole. The response by the UK Government to the problem of drug misuse has been the introduction of legislation, both to control the manufacture and supply of medicinal drugs (Medicines Act 1968), and to prevent the misuse of non-medicinal or illegal drugs (Misuse of Drugs Act 1971).

Recent figures published by the Office of National Statistics suggest a conservative figure of 320,000 known problem drug users in the UK. In addition, there are 1.8 million adults whose alcohol consumption is at a harmful level. The financial cost of dealing with substance abuse is estimated at £30 billion a year, which takes account of loss of productivity at work, drug- associated criminal activity, policing and the costs to the Health Service. All these factors have led to changes in governmental policy and a more proactive approach towards the treatment and rehabilitation of problem drug users.

However, before any form of treatment can begin, it is important to ascertain exactly what drug or drugs are being misused, at what levels and over what time period. This is now possible, due to advances in analytical science.

When ingested, smoked or injected, drugs enter the bloodstream and are converted into specific metabolites. These metabolites circulate throughout the body, where they are incorporated into keratinised matrices – the hair and nails – or excreted via urine or sweat. The presence of one or more of these specific drug metabolites in a sample of blood, urine, sweat or hair taken from the subject is conclusive evidence of drug misuse.

The choice of sample to be analysed will depend on the period of time over which any drug use needs to be detected. Each type of drug test has specific window of detection, ranging from just a few days to many months, depending on the sample that is chosen for analysis. If, for example, you wanted to establish that a drug was consumed within the last few days, then urine or blood analysis would be the best choice, as the window of detection is between 3 and 6 days. However, if chronic misuse needs to be established, a hair drug test would be the most appropriate, as drug testing of hair can establish the pattern of substance abuse over a period of 6 months or more. Of course, other factors such as the possibility of adulteration of the sample, storage of the sample, ease of collection and expense also need to be taken into consideration.

To some extent, the accuracy and sophistication of drug testing techniques have overtaken the public’s acceptance of its use. Society does not, at present, endorse widespread drug screening programmes. However, in those groups where it has been deemed acceptable to carry out drug screening – prisoners, airline pilots and members of the armed forces – it has proved an effective means not only of detecting substance misuse, but also of monitoring and supporting drug rehabilitation programmes.

The benefits of in home testing are:

· Timely- Instant testing and confirmation eliminates delays up to 3 to 4 days in waiting for laboratory results.

· Cost Effective – Small fraction of full laboratory testing fee. Initial qualitative screening results for positive drug or drug metabolite confirmations provided for in cost effective manner.

· Rapid Confirmation- Decreased stress caused by waiting for results.

· Ease of Use – Simple test procedure using subject’s urine. Compact self-contained test, no peripherals and special equipment or training necessary.

· Accuracy up to 99%- Built in quality controls and variances provide the most accurate results for a one-step test possible. Minimizes false positives through user error.

· Visual Display- Easy to read results eliminate misreading or need for examiner interpretation.

Applications :

· Random Drug Screening of Employees.

· Pre-employment screening.

· Job Applicants making sure to “Test clean”.

· Halfway House and Drug Recovery Programs.

· School and Business “Drug Free” Programs.

· School Athletic Programs.

· Zero Tolerance Home Testing Programs.

· Vehicle and Equipment operation.

· Insurance Exams.

· Routine Medical Exams and Patient Programs.

· Law Enforcement.

Saliva drug test, hair drug test urine drug test and sweat drug test- each type of drug test has unique advantages. A saliva drug test offers the advantage of a convenient collection procedure that can be directly observed by test administrator. A hair drug test extends the window of detection to three months, giving the longest look-back period of any other drug test method. A drug test that uses urine offers the advantage of solid scientific support for the test method. And because of the short window of detection for marijuana in a saliva drug test kit, positive saliva drug test results for marijuana indicate current intoxication from that drug. The sweat patch drug test system makes it very difficult for clients to substitute or adulterate the test, and offers continuous monitoring of drug use for the one week that the client typically wears the patch.

The major benefit of saliva drug testing is that unlike urine blood tests, it is much easier to collect the sample for testing and it is much more difficult to give a false sample. In urine drug testing the sample is collected in the privacy of a special booth constructed for the purpose or a toilet. The subject has the chance to provide a sample that is clean without the knowledge of the person in charge of testing. This has been the greatest issue with urine drug testing so far.

But the collection of saliva for saliva drug testing is accomplished easily and in public leaving out no space for the subject in question to pull a trick on the tester. The sample required for saliva drug testing is collected by using a scrub that resembles a toothbrush, the only difference being that at the end where there should be bristles, we find a swab that collects saliva. Saliva is collected by placing this collection mechanism between the lower cheek and gum for about two minutes.

Understandably, the collection method for saliva drug testing is obviously simpler than that for urine testing, or blood testing for that matter. Another great advantage of saliva drug testing is that, with the use of some instant testing kits, the result is availed pretty quickly without the need for a lab. In contrast, a blood test would require sample collection by a health care professional and testing in a lab significantly driving up the costs and the time required.

Saliva drug testing cannot be used as a comprehensive drug test for detecting long term drug use patterns. Most drugs do not leave a residue in the saliva beyond a 20 hour period. Saliva drug testing can be used safely to judge whether the person has consumed drugs within the last 24 hours but it won’t detect if the person has any history of drug abuse at all. A hair drug test would beat saliva drug testing at it any given day going back up to 90 days, but a hair drug test takes a month or so to give results.

Saliva drug testing is rather an excellent way by which to test long haul truck drivers on the spot before a trip to determine whether he has consumed any drugs recently that would impair his ability to drive safely. Saliva drug testing could also be employed in case of accidents on the job or on the road to determine whether drug abuse was a factor that contributed to the mishap. With instant results and easy sample collection, no other tests would compare with a saliva drug test in these conditions.

Saliva drug testing has the capability to detect up to 8 different drugs in the body. It is usually designed to detect 5 to 6 drugs at the same time. The results of saliva drug testing are accurate and completely reliable. So the question arises as to why saliva drug testing is not as popular or widely employed as the urine test or the blood test.

Saliva drug testing will eventually replace all other drug testing methods in all cases where a comprehensive drug abuse history is not required to be evaluated. This quick and easy method is poised to take the market by storm. That is unless the labs manage to bury it in propaganda.

You may see it online all the time. All you have to do is detoxify yourself and your test will come back negative. All of those pesky drugs will be flushed out of your system in a jiffy. But wait just a second. Have you ever thought about just how untrue this statement is? detoxifying may work for some other types of tests, but hair drug tests can’t be cheated. Once your hair grows out, traces of drugs will be detectable no matter how much water you drink or whatever other detoxifying procedures you endure.

So, how can you pass hair drug tests? Well, the answer is really quite simple. Don’t do drugs! Yet people are still insistent on the notion that you can cheat hair drug tests with simple methods. For instance, some people believe that by using certain shampoos, you can eliminate the drug remnants from your hair and scalp and therefore pass the test with flying colors. But again, this is dead wrong. Hair drug tests look down deep for results. Evidence of drug use cannot just be washed away. Rather, it must grow out of the scalp and if the user stops using, the drug test will no longer be able to read evidence of drug use after 90 days or so.

Still, this is a significant window of time we’re talking about here. No quick fix can help you pass drug tests. Hair follicle drug tests look at the root—pun intended—of the problem and no amount of detoxifying concoctions or special shampoos will strip the hair of these chemicals. Once you partake in illegal drug activity you will have evidence on your body for a good 90 days.

And don’t go thinking shaving your head bald will do any good. Body hair works just as well and may even show results for longer considering the slower growth rate. So whatever you’d heard about shaving your head to avoid a hair drug test, you heard wrong. Hair follicle drug tests provide accurate results within a few days time. One quick sample of hair is all you need for a 99.9% accurate result. So, if you want results that you can rely on and know that no one can cheat or slip by and pass, hair drug tests are the obvious way to go

Before you start drug testing your teen, it is very important to open a direct line of communication. This is not just so your teen understands why you are drug testing them but also so that you can help prevent drug abuse in your home. Communicating effectively has been shown to reduce the likelihood of drug use occurring in the first place.

You Need To Research

Again, before buying any sort of drug test, you need to do your research. Not only so you do not spend more money than you need to but so you purchase the correct type of test. This is important because not all drug tests can detect every sort of drug.

Trust is an Issue

You need to be prepared as a parent for backlash from your teen. Your teen may feel as though you no longer trust them, especially if they have not done anything to violate your trust in them. It is very important to address this issue before your teen does.

Drug Testing Saves Lives

Even if you are feeling hesitant about implementing drug testing in your household, one important fact ought to convince you: drug testing saves lives. It is been proven over and over again and should be reason enough for you to consider testing your teen regularly.

Being Greeted By An Attitude is Normal

Teens will be teens and even though the fact that you are drug testing them is for their benefit and health, it is perfectly normal to be greeted by reluctance. Explain your case well and after a few grumbles and mean looks from your teen, they should adjust to the idea of being tested.

Consistency is Important

If you only drug test once in a great while, you will not necessarily have accurate results. That is why it is so important to drug test on a regular basis. It does not have to be at the same time all of the time, and it should be a bit random, but consistency is vital to successful drug testing.

Reliable Provider

Another important facet of drug testing your teens is finding a reliable company from which to buy these tests. A web search should suffice, but pay attention to things like certification with the BBB and encrypted shopping. Your information deserves to remain private.

Testing is Better than the Alternative

Think of it this way: it is much better to test your teen routinely for drug use than to find out they have been using drugs by some other means such as declined performance in school or irregular behavior.

It does not have to be Invasive

There are so many different types of drug testing available that there really is not a need to make it more complicated than it should be. The most invasive a drug test will be is a urine test, which is pretty easy and provides on the spot results. A hair test is also easy. Long gone are the days of embarrassing drug tests.

They do not Fix Everything

One thing you absolutely must know before buying or using drug testing kits on your teen is that, regardless of the results you receive, the test itself does not solve anything. If you think your teen is using drugs, the test will tell you the answer. It is the part that follows—confronting your teen and seeking treatment—that can be difficult.

Basically, when any substance is taken into the body, particularly drugs, small elements make their way into the blood stream. This, of course, is what causes the “high” of the drug. Whatever ends up in your blood, from nutritive elements to narcotics, eventually is processed to the parts of your body that grow on a regular basis, namely the hair and the fingernails. The problem with testing for drugs using fingernail clippings is that the elements in the blood are turned into keratin during metabolism and therefore are no longer present in their individual parts. Hair, however, retains the memory and the atomic structure of whatever has been ingested and keeps a record, much as the rings on a tree do.

The length of time for which the test is effective

The effective range for a drug test in an individual’s hair sample will differ according to each individual. In fact, drug usage can be detected as long as that particular hair has been growing, the only time period that may be missed by such a test is a narcotic that has been ingested just prior to the test; usually a period between two to five days. After this time, the drug will start to show up in hair samples.

Standard information on hair drug tests say that they are effective for around ninety days, or three months, and right up to 120 days (four months). This, of course, is based on the average growth rate of a human hair follicle. The idea here is that after that period of time has elapsed, the average person is likely to get a haircut that will result in the loss of the part of the hair follicle that grew during drug usage.

Just as an individual may keep a permanent record of their drug usage by never cutting their hair, so can short hair or a shaved head erase any hair follicle records of drug usage. This need not foil testers, however, as any hair on the body will keep this record.

1. Ten Times More Effective Than Urine Drug Tests

With this kind of modern and convenient method, it is now easy for schools and even employers to test students and employees to determine whether or not they have drugs in their system. Hair drug tests come in handy kits with instructions on how to get hair specimens, then send it to the laboratory for evaluation.

2. How It Works:

According to studies, when a person takes in drugs, as with any other substances, such as food, medicines, or drinks, it mixes with our blood, and as we all know, the blood nourishes all parts of our body, including the head. Hints of these chemicals then become trapped or filtered through the hair follicle, thus, as the hair grows, these chemicals are stored in the hair. Interestingly, these chemicals become a part of the hair itself.

- Very accurate
- Chemicals in the hair can be traced
- Traces not just drugs in system at the time, but over the past three months!
- A two-inch sample can give that persons drug history for a four month period of time
- Hair drug testing is much more costly than urine testing
- Hair testing is now widely used due to it’s effectiveness

3. How It’s Done:

- A hair drug test involves cutting a minimum of 50 strands of hair
- Hair must be cut approximately one and a half inches from the scalp
- Hair is then sent to the drug testing laboratory
- The hair is actually screened and reviewed, then liquified for final testing
- There are lots of hair drug testing kits available today

4. Hair Drug Testing Kits

Hair drug testing kits, though widely available, are not affordable. Prices range from $50-$69 for a complete kit. Laboratory processing fees are usually included when you make your purchase.

One point of view to consider tough – a positive test result does not automatically mean the person uses illegal drugs. In fact, positive results are sometimes triggered by other legal substances. One maybe is under medication or taking maintenance medications, or over-the-counter medications. It is wise therefore, that when the confirmation test comes back positive, it is important for a doctor, nurse, or other specialist to review the results and determine if illegal drugs are indeed the guilty party.

5. Beating Hair Drug Tests Is Impossible

Now other smart individuals are finding ways and means to beat the hair drug tests. Some say one can pass it through a kind of shampoo, especially from companies that claim that their shampoo cleans off all the toxins in the hair, but they are wrong. These toxins are already part of the hair follicle’s structure, cleaning it will literally mean taking it all off. The hair is like a plant. If a plant grows in a toxic environment, it will absorb toxins and toxins will become part of its structure – no amount of shampoo will change that.

As we cannot clean off toxins in the hair, can we mask it by bleach or dyeing one’s hair? Maybe for a time, yes we can. But then, our skin is made up of fatty tissues. These fatty tissues are responsible for storing toxins in the body. When our body sweats, it gives off skin oil and release toxins, and these will be touched and be absorbed by the hair. It’s like a cycle. The masked hair will then be contaminated once more.

Others shave off their hair, but sad to say, toxins don’t leave the body anytime soon. If you are being kept in confinement, your hair will slowly grow back in, and your drug use history will come back for all to see with it.

A prominent German talkshow host, Michel Friedman, has volunteered to give a sample of hair for a drug test after police raids on his home and offices in Frankfurt on Wednesday found three cellophane packets containing traces of a white powder subsequently identified as cocaine.

Friedman, famous for his aggressive questioning of politicians, has agreed to step down from his programme while an inquiry takes place.

His lawyer, Eckart Hild, said Friedman was not yet ready to comment publicly on the inquiry.

The German media reported that Friedman’s name emerged during the investigation of eastern European people smugglers, but a spokesman for the state prosecutor declined to comment.

Friedman was born in Paris to parents rescued from the Nazis by the industrialist Oskar Schindler.

He moved to Frankfurt in 1988 and became vice-president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany three years ago.

Paul Spiegel, the president of the Jewish council, said the allegations were a private affair and should not be regarded as having any bearing on Friedman’s work for the council.

Friedman’s confrontational questioning runs counter to the traditionally emollient style of German television.

Last year he found himself in a row about anti-semitism when the politician Jürgen Möllemann – who died in an apparently suicidal parachute jump last week – accused him and the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, of provoking hatred against Jews.

“There’s definitely a performance-enhancing effect if you use things that improve oxygen transport to the tissue,” says Larry Bowers, an expert on athletic drug testing and senior managing director of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. He says anonymous surveys of athletes indicate that only a tenth of them use performance-enhancing drugs. But he acknowledges that doped Athletes may win most of the time.”

“Charles Yesalis, an epidemiology professor at Pennsylvania State University who has written extensively on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport over the past 23 years, believes a “large percentage” of record-holders probably doped their way to the finish line. “A lot of experts, at least in private, feel that way,” he says.”
“Yesalis maintains that drug testing, as practiced at past games, has been a “farce.” “Just because of my own value system, I have never seriously entertained legalizing drugs,” says Yesalis. “But the stench of the hypocrisy is starting to outweigh my hesitation to just throw up my hands and say, ‘Let everybody do whatever they want.’” Performance Drugs Outrun The Olympics – Matthew Herper, 02.15.02, 12:00 PM ET Forbes.com

As Charles Yesalis, of the US. Anti-Doping Agency, I feel like saying “‘Let everybody do whatever they want.’”, but perhaps it would be the wrong signal, so let us analyse, what might happen if performance-enhancing drugs were legalized for professional athletes:

- Young people would get the wrong message.

- Our general anti drugs laws would not make any sense because; athletes are users and abusers of illegal drugs such as;
Amphetamines, Diuretics, Growth hormone, Anabolic Steroids, Cocaine, Coca leaf juice, Cannabis even Monkey Brains and G.O.R.K. (God Only Really Knows)!

- All drugs would have to be legalized!

- We would have a quarter of the world taking speed, a quarter smoking cannabis another quarter snorting cocaine and the rest wondering what to take to look “Normal”! Kidding apart it would be a catastrophe! Or would it be?

- The already existing sports fanatics and wanabe champion dysfunctional and destitute of any talent would start taking drugs
in the hope it would work for them! (Even though it would not work, because you still need to be a pure bread/great athlete
to win.)

- Greedy parents would start pumping their children with all kinds of terrible things. (How naive am I, as if they were not
doing it now?)

- High school coaches of all sports would have a heyday!
“A 2005 survey of high school students across the country by the national Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 4.8 percent had used steroids without a doctor’s prescription.

Not that anyone needs a doctor. A 2005 study by monitoring the Future, a federally funded research organization, found that nearly 40 percent of high school seniors said steroids were “fairly easy” or “very easy” to acquire.” Impact of steroids felt across high school sports C.W. Nevius Wednesday, September 20, 2006 – San Francisco Chronicle

So if; At the Sydney Games, out of almost 3000 athletes tested, some 80 per cent of them admitted to taking at least one ‘legal’ drug or supplement. Over 500 admitted to taking more than five. It is clear that the ‘medicalisation’ of human performance, at least at the Olympics, means that sport could not, ironically, exist without drugs whether they are ‘legal’ or not.” Drugs in sport – a bitter pill to swallow Fri, Dec 8, 06 16:15

”No one wants to see me put the shot 65 feet or throw the discus 200 feet, and the only way I can make a big throw is to use steroids.” He said the competition would still be legitimate because he said 80 percent to 90 percent of the athletes he would face were using steroids. VIEWS OF SPORT; Liberate Track and Field From Steroids VIEWS OF SPORT; By EDWIN MOSES

Nicolas Escude former ATP player (Career High ATP Ranking – Singles: 17 (26-Jun-2000) at the French open 2002. In Paris, French Davis Cup player Escude said: “To say that tennis today is clean, you have to be living in a dream world.” By Piers Newbery – BBC Sport Online at Wimbledon Friday, 28 June, 2002, 17:05 GMT 18:05 UK

Now the case for making it legal for professional athletes to take drugs:

- If the estimate is that around the 80% of the Athletes use some sort of performance enhancing substance, there is a strong case for legalization!

- Performance enhancing drugs should be legal for professional athletes only and above the age of 18 years old.

- Laws should be made to protect non-professional athletes and youngsters – No Tolerance on use or abuse.

- No tolerance for the use of performance enhancing drugs for non-professional until the age of 18 years old!

- Doctors and Medicine Sports Centres should be responsible for the Athletes medication.

- The Athletes and Doctors and labs should take full responsibility for their own decisions.

- Coaches should stay completely out of the equation, the professionals on the field; Doctors, Scientists and Labs should be the only ones making decisions with the Athletes.

There are a lot more issues, but to make this article shorter we have to understand that, the general public is well aware of what is going on and so do officials, sponsors and governments. There is too much money involved, billions and billions of dollars; we are no longer in the “Pierre de Coubertin” era. It is time for a change and everyone will feel better with the situation, the IOC, the governing bodies, the testing sites and the Athletes themselves.

Why are we then continuing this charade? Keeping on saying that our sports are clean when in any given Olympic games more than 8O% of the Athletes are “sick” or asthmatic, or have liver, heart or lung problems in order to be prescribed “legal” (Illegal) drugs and compete! And when almost every week there is a report about drug use by professional Athletes!

Remember in my last article; – “SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — John McEnroe has reportedly admitted he unknowingly took steroids during his tennis career.

“For six years I was unaware I was being given a form of steroid of the legal kind they used to give horses until they decided it was too strong even for horses,” McEnroe was quoted as saying in The Daily Telegraph newspaper in Sydney on Monday.” http://www.cnn.com/2004/SPORT/01/11/mcenroe.steroids.ap/ – CNN WORLD SPORTS Sunday, January 11, 2004 Posted: 8:52 PM EST (0152 GMT)

…and the ATP, the ITF and whoever else tests the players did not detect “HORSE DOSES of Steroids” in John McEnroe’s urine or blood tests? Definitely, “They cannot be serious!”

“In his book ”You Cannot Be Serious”, McEnroe said he suspected that steroids and amphetamines had made their way into the top levels of the sport in the 80′s. ” Why were steroids or amphetamines not detected on other players either, that is if players were tested at all?

The excuse, “the tennis authorities were testing for recreational drugs only”, oh!…and cocaine apparently stays in your body for the rest of your life in the roots of your hair. How come cocaine was never detected in any of the possible suspected culprits in the Tennis Tour then? Or is this a case of the whole world being “stupid” and these organizations know better?

We could go on and on citing more and more questionable actions by officialdom to no avail. The crux of all of this is; “Should we legalize performance-enhancing drugs in tennis/sports?” As much as I hate to say it, to bring this absurd hypocritical charade to an end, my answer is a redundant yes!