Sunday, March 1, 2015

Basics Regarding Drug Testing Brisbane

By Olivia Cross


There are many different situations in which checking for presence of drugs within a person is necessary. Drug tests are the technical analysis of biological specimens to determine presence or absence of parent drugs or their metabolites. This can be done using breath, hair, blood, urine, sweat or saliva samples. People living in the country of Australia might have interest in what is available in terms of drug testing Brisbane.

Sometimes testing is done to check for performance-enhancing steroids in athletes. An employer might choose to test potential or current employees for illegal drugs, including cocaine, heroin and cannabis. Many times police officers will perform alcohol tests to determine the presence and concentration of this within an individual. BAC is the term used to describe the content amount and tests done to check this involve application of a breathalyzer. Urinalysis is typically assigned for workplace or sports testing purposes.

Many different drugs might be detected through the process. There are certain windows of detection that might be based on certain things, such as: frequency of use, metabolic rate, age, amount taken, drug class, body mass, urine pH and overall health. The time of detection for metabolites is often longer than the parent drug. For example, heroin and cocaine are only detected through the system for a few hours after they have been used, but the metabolites might stay in urine for days.

Saliva and oral fluid test results are similar to that of blood, with a couple exceptions. Breath air can also mimic accuracy of blood tests. Generally speaking, most hair tests have a long detection period of days, usually between 2 and 90.

Urine tests screen for parent drugs or their metabolites. These simply detect whether or not these things are present in the system, not how much or how long. This is commonly the approach used by employers who want to screen their employees. Generally, these people will be sent to a special collection site to have the test performed and will be given instructions on what to do. The sample given is watched over to ensure there is no tampering or invalidation that occurs by any parties involved.

Hair analysis is more commonly used in the court systems. These are generally considered admissible evidence by legal and scientific parameters. A range of drugs can be tested through hair samples, including amphetamines, cocaine, cannabis and newer drugs like mephedrone.

Presumptive substance testing is done by utilizing substances, materials or surfaces where trace amounts of illegal substances might be found. This may be used instead of testing biological matter of a person, such as urine or hair. This involves mixing the suspicious material with a chemical and if the response is a color change, a drug has been detected. Many of these are sold over-the-counter and can be done without professional labs.

This form of testing is ideal because a person does not need to know it is being done. Only a small piece of material is necessary to do this. Tests are for screening purposes and only provide results that are generic. Still, they can determine if at least a dozen drugs are present. It is important to utilize professional labs and workers in order to get top accuracy with results.




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