CLIA establishes quality standard for drug testing in laboratories:CLIA establishes the quality standards for laboratories. It ensures accuracy, reliability and timeliness among the testing results. The main objective of CLIA is to provide quality laboratory testing results. Though CLIA waived drug testing kits are most commonly used in hospitals, they can be used at home or any other place, as they are simple and easy to use. And have a very less chance of an error.

Testing methods:There are two methods of testing, they are, CLIA Waived drug test and non-waived drug test.• Waived drug tests are cheap because they don’t require extensive paper work like preparing the details of donor and test methodology. These are accurate and easy drug detectors and are mostly used to conduct the preliminary test. When the test sample (blood, urine, hair etc) is found positive in the waived drug test, then it is further tested through non-waived drug test.• Non-waived drug test is an expensive test. This test requires extensive paper work. As it is costlier test, it is only conducted when the sample is confirmed positive in the waived drug test. For any kind of non-waived testing methods, the sample that has been collected for a drug test should meet up with legal needs and get certified by the reliable sample collectors.

Suitable for both laboratory and non-laboratory test:Performing test through CLIA waived drug testing kit is very simple. It is suitable for both laboratory and non-laboratory drug tests. Non-laboratory drug testes are performed by the trained care personnel at hospitals, labs, treatment centers, prisons, work place etc, for instant and accurate results.

CLIA waived drug testing kit ensures that the specimen collected for the laboratory test is tested accurately and in a timely manner. This information will be helpful to you in knowing about the CLIA waived drug testing kit.

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Products from Medimpex United Inc.Like Multi Screen Saliva drug Test screen 5 are convenient and low-cost allowing pre-employment screening in a short period as opposed to laboratory testing that consumes time and resources. It can detect the “Golden Rule” drugs that are also called NIDA-5 or the five substances that are covered by mandatory screening for both federal and private corporations. These substances are Opiates/Morphine, Cannabinoids (marijuana), Cocaine (crack), Methamphetamine and Phencyclidines. Being low cost (under $12.00) it is perfect for use in immediate cases where testing is required such as accident investigation where the effects of drugs are suspected to be the cause, pre-employment, and employee monitoring.

Another product,Saliva Multi Drug Screen Test kit is an expanded version of the first one and is capable of detecting 6 drugs that uses one step chromatograph immunoassaying that can detect Amphetamines, Opiates, Phencyclidine, THC, Methamphetamine, Cocaine and other metabolites or drug by-products in saliva. It is also affordable and has a low footprint making disposal easier as opposed to urine test kits which tend to be bulkier and tend to be more delicate to deal with.

OraLert,another of their products is also capable of detecting Amphetamines, Opiates, Phencyclidine, THC, Methamphetamine, Cocaine and other metabolites or drug by-products in saliva with lower sensitivity to THC the active ingredient of Marijuana. Being the most abused drug in America accounting for 30% of total drugs abused in the country making it a necessary choice in testing for THC. Being priced higher at $13.50 it is still quite cheap compared with other competing products on the market.

They also carry Oral Fluid 6 Multi Drug Screen Test kits for laboratory examination on samples that produce non-negative results. They include instructions on how to handle and send the sample to a laboratory for further analysis. A test cap that is secured with a provided security seal and a chain of custody form that is essential for total accountability of the test sample as it is sent for testing. They are all then inserted into a padded mailer bag that is then sent to the laboratory for further screening more detailed metabolite identification.

The last test kit is similar to the second kit that can detect Amphetamines, Opiates, Phencyclidine, THC, Methamphetamine, Cocaine and other metabolites. Pricing starts at almost $13.00 which when ordered in bulk, has the price dropping by increments. Saliva drug testing has benefits of on-site collection within plain view of the subject. There is minimal risk of adulteration, totally non-invasive and samples can be collected anywhere(the field, office, etc.)

Compared with most products on-line which are priced higher at $15.00 or more for the rapid test types the products mentioned above are quite similar and even better than some. Disadvantages include less sensitivity to marijuana and that being part of the body’s metabolism mechanism, drugs don’t stay in the system for long with only a 10 to 24 hour effective sampling time. Unlike hair drug tests which can produce historical information not only with they types of drugs but the quantity and frequency as well. For hair as it grows at a predictable rate metabolites become trapped within the follicles allowing accurate detection.

The drugs are then expelled by the body through urine with minute residue or metabolites to give an accurate reading. Several measures to defeat the tests have been observed such as eating foods that would alter the production of saliva and smoking which tends to mask the needed metabolites for detection. In these cases, urine is used for testing which tends to be more plentiful and copious quantities can be obtained through induced bladder excretion. Other specialist test kits are available for detecting Marijuana which tends to be weak in multi-panel test kits. But the cost for testing for a single substance rather than multiple-testing would be detrimental but could be essential and unavoidable. Although gaining popularity within the private sector, these types of tests are not generally accepted as a valid test tool for urine is their media of choice. With urine,mostly dip type multi panel test kits are used which tend to cost a lot more than saliva test kits we have mentioned above.

Federal Drug testing is more rigorous and tends to be more tedious but private sector companies should be aware that although unregulated they are still covered by laws concerning privacy and discrimination issues. These tests cannot be demanded without probable cause and can be banned altogether by unions who target these detection measures in their Collective Bargaining Agreements. The Mandatory clause is for federal agencies only and does not cover companies that are not under government management. Companies are also to follow rules that apply to these tests as listed under the Department of Labor’s codes. If used in the home, training might be required by law for application in the school environment, though non-invasive consent is required for those below 18 years of age. And the proper representatives are required along with the necessary confidentiality policies.

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There are many pros and cons in the school drug testing programs. Some say that the main purpose of school drug testing is not to catch kids using drugs, but to prevent them from ever using drugs, illegal or not. Once teenagers are using drugs it is much harder for them to break their addiction. If by testing the athletes or other school leaders, we can get them to say no to drugs, it will be easier for other kids to say no.

Reasons for Student Drug Testing:

· Testing gives students a chance to say “No to Drugs” when approached to use drugs.

· Student drug testing is important because children become addicted more rapidly than adults and their recovery is less likely.

· Students have a right to safe and drug-free learning environments. School administrators need reasonable tools to stop drug users and drug dealers from ruining school for everyone.

· Testing gives parents an opportunity for intervention and treatment. Parents have the right to send their kids to drug-free schools. The thought of sending their kids to a school where drugs are rampant scares parents. Drug testing helps keep our kids safe.

· The intent of this program is not to punish students. The goal is for the drug user to straighten his or her life out. The schools use drug testing as a tool to deter drug use and help students to get drug education and/or counseling. The results are not turned over to law enforcement.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1995 (in Vernonia v. Acton) that schools could randomly test student athletes who are not suspected of drug use. The Court also stated that as school athletes routinely face mandatory physicals and other similar invasions of privacy, they have lower expectations of privacy than the average student. The Court specified that its decision should not be seen as a justification for further expansion of drug testing programs. In 2002 (the Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls) it was ruled in Supreme Court that all students who participate in voluntary activities, like cheerleading, band, or debate, could be subjected to random tests as well.

It’s not a trust issue it’s a health and safety issue. We are talking about kids here. Schools that have drug-testing programs makes atmosphere become more positive. In addition, drug test results are used for counseling purposes and are not turned over to law enforcement.

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There are a lot of misconceptions about Drug abuse and it’s Dangers:

· Drug abuse is harmful, but it relieves you of stress: Drug Abuse affects your brain in the same way stress does. Long-term usage of drugs makes users more prone to everyday stress compared to Non-users.

· As soon as a person feels normal, drug is out of the body: Long after effects of the drug stop are felt, the drug can still be in the body. For example, cocaine can be found in the body up to one week and marijuana up to four weeks after a single use.

· One can stop using drugs any time: Withdrawal sickness, believing you must have drugs, and being around people who use can make stopping drug use difficult. But there are people and programs that can help.

· You will have to use drugs for a long time before it really hurts you: Drugs can cause the brain to send the wrong signals to the body. This can happen the first time a drug is used.

Education and outreach are becoming major parts of establishing a more effective program for preventing drug abuse at schools, workplaces or at your home. Drug abuse has been associated with a wide range of adverse side effects ranging from some that are physically unattractive, Most are reversible if the abuser stops taking the drugs, but some are permanent. Presenting the risks of Drug use is more effective in convincing adolescents about its negative effects, apparently because the people find a balanced approach more credible and less biased. A good way to begin dealing with a drug abuse problem is to give employees the resources to control their environment and claim ownership of the policy on no drug abuse. A good way to deal with a drug abuse problem is to give people the resources to control their environment.

Drug abuse also damages America’s competitive position worldwide. Our nation’s businesses are competing overseas where the competition has a much lower incidence of drug abuse. The United States has only six percent of the world’s population, but consumes 60 percent of the world’s illegal drug supply is moving into the home.

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Primarily there are five methods of drug testing. Those are

. Urine drug testing: Urine drug test is the most common, inexpensive, simple and easy to administer. Urine drug tests are reliable and can be tested individually and at other places.

. Blood drug testing: Blood testing is one of the most accurate drug testing but intrusive and expensive.

. Hair drug testing: When used in right time hair testing gives more accurate results and it is most expensive drug testing.

. Saliva drug testing: Oral drug testing is the simplest form of drug testing, which is increasingly used, as it is the least intrusive test procedure.

. Sweat drug testing: Sweat tests are patches attached to the skin to collect sweat over a long period of time (10–14 days).

Drug testing, and particularly random drug testing is not allowed in every state in the United States. There are certain guidelines mentioned by The Federal Drug-Free Work Place Act of 1988. Following guidelines give the minimum requirements.

. Publish a policy statement prohibiting unlawful use, possession, manufacture, or distribution of controlled substances in the workplace;

. Notify employees of said prohibition and the penalty for violating it;

. Establish a drug-free awareness program;

. Provide employees engaged in a contract with a copy of the policy statement;

. Notify employees that compliance with the policy statement is a condition of employment;

. Require (in writing in your policy) employees to notify the employer within five

. Days if they are convicted of a criminal drug statute violation occurring in the workplace;

. Make a good-faith effort to maintain a drug-free workplace through these provisions.

In 2004 SAMHSA proposed a new rule that would allow federal agencies to use sweat, saliva and hair in federal drug testing programs that now only test urine. The proposal would also allow selected specimen testing at the time and place it is collected.

Drug testing has an important role in safety-critical and other occupations where the public is entitled to expect the highest standards of safety and probity. In order to make the workforce free from drug use at work places several new methods are in line under the rules proposed by SAMHSA that are unintrusive, inescapable and yield accurate results.

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Advantages:

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.

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Drug testing has advanced into schools, the military and the workplace in a steady pace. The whole purpose is to promote a healthy environment free of drugs and promote the zero tolerance policy on drug abuse. But is the entire drug testing campaign actually reducing the drug abuse rate or is it really compounding the problem by driving the guilty party to the wall.

When a person is screened and found to be guilty of drug abuse, he is not always subjected to rehabilitation and assisted recovery as we may tend to believe. A person found to be abusing drugs may have to undergo imprisonment, may lose his job and even lose the custody of his children. The point of concern is that a person detected during drug testing could possibly undergo punishment that would actually reduce his ties with society and decrease the chances of his return to a normal life.

It is not just the workplace that is under the shadow of drug testing. Earlier drug testing in schools fell in the grey area of the law and was avoided for a while. But the US Supreme courts have now approved drug testing in students of public schools who participate in extracurricular activities like sports, and there is general consensus that this will expand to include all students in the future. A student who is tested and found to have used drugs can be expelled for this reason alone. Instead of rehabilitating the drug abuser into regular social life, what a drug test actually succeeds in doing is really denying the student a proper education pushing him farther into dependence on drugs.

Another perspective to this whole issue is the opinion that it is not really the treatment after a positive drug test that deters the person from further drug abuse; it is rather the threat of incarceration and punishment. Once drug testing has identified a drug abuser, the treatment given to release him from addiction is opined to be superfluous by a lobby that argues that it is the possibility of punishment and loss of employment that actually motivates the people to actually stop abusing drugs. This perspective emphasizes that after drug testing, punishment or the threat of it is necessary and in a way constructive in cleaning up the society of drug abusers.

It is to be noted the usual urine drug testing does not differentiate between a regular drug abuser and a one-time experimenter. When the drug testing results come back as positive, it does not contain information on when the person used the drug, nor does it contain info on how often he uses it.

What results from this is that both of these types of drug users are clumped together and people who just experimented with a recreational drug just once in their life time are labeled as drug abusers too.

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First of all, student drug testing aims at preventing adolescents from being initiated into drug abuse. The possibility of being detected in a student drug testing campaign is expected to be deterrent strong enough to convince them to abstain from succumbing to peer pressure and using drugs. Student drug testing will also identify drug abusers in their adolescence and let their counselors and parents intervene very early to help the student recover from the habit before it is too late. The students who have already developed a dependence on drugs could be easily detected and referred for treatment or rehabilitation programs.

It would be very helpful if a person is found and helped during the initial stages of his addiction since the possibility of his recovery decreases with his dependency on the drug. Most people start experimenting with drugs when they are in school. Although this is considered natural and safe as long as they don’t slip into an addiction, these innocent experiments have the inclination to transform into accidents, violent incidents or overdose. Student drug testing aims to discourage experimentation among the students to reduce the risk.

It is common to neglect the amount of drug abuse happening among students by ignoring the facts. Most people don’t understand the impact that student drug testing could make because they do not comprehend the extent of the problem that we are trying to solve. At least 50% of 12th graders are found to have used drugs once in their life and 10% admit to using Marijuana on a monthly basis.

For a school to start off on implementing a student drug testing program, first it needs to analyze the requirement it. It needs to figure out the level of drug abuse in the community as a whole and within the students of that school. Small surveys could be conducted among the students and their parents to judge the level of need for such a program. If the need for drug testing is clear, then the school needs to find funding for the project. A lot of schools are already availing themselves of funding from the Department of Education for student drug testing as a part of the Safe and Drug Free Schools Program.

A student drug testing program alone cannot play the whole game. Detection of impaired individuals should go hand in hand with intervention and treatment programs. An individual detected to be abusing drugs through a student drug testing program should undergo intervention by his parents, teachers and counselors enabling him to return to a normal socially productive life. Without this we stand to lose all benefits of the student drug testing programs.

Once a program for student drug testing has been formulated and implemented, it will act as a deterrent against drug abuse for youngsters in the country. When we separate the young and impressionable from initiation into drug abuse, what we achieve is a new generation that is clean from the effects of drugs. There has never been a better investment in the future.

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