Has your new employer or education institution required you to submit the results of a drug test? Do you suspect that one of your relatives is secretly taking narcotics and you want to know the truth? Learn about drug tests, their types, and how to take them if needed!
There are currently thousands of illegal psychoactive substances on the world market, to which access is difficult but not impossible. Read more about this at thedrugtestdetox.com. Puberty is a time of experimentation with various legal addictive substances, such as alcohol, cigarettes, or poppers, as well as the hard drugs that come from the black market, and not only they are very dangerous, but they are also illegal. Among these are amphetamine, cocaine, methamphetamine, morphine, heroin. On the other hand, there are so-called soft drugs, such as LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, hashish, or THC.
Whether it’s hard or soft drugs, their presence in the human body can be detected even sometime after they were used. While with some narcotics it is a question of hours, others remain in the body for a period of several days while they can easily be detected in either urine or blood.
Indicative screening tests
Indicative screening tests are used, for example, in schools, at work, etc. They use either saliva or urine for the detection of the narcotic substances. They can be purchased in most pharmacies or online. Their one great disadvantage is that they are not 100% reliable and so-called false positivity can occur.
In fact, sometimes the positive result of an indicative test may just be due to the reaction of the test to a substance other than the narcotic one. This happens when, for example, the user takes medicines that might contain similar chemical substances as the narcotics do. False result may also be caused by different diseases, such as kidney and liver disease.
When taking an indicative screening test, one should be cautious. In case of a positive result, a laboratory test is advised as well, to confirm the actual presence of the narcotics in blood. This is especially true if the test is required by school or work.
Indicative tests can simply be taken at home, giving a result in about five minutes. Keep in mind that there are various types of chemicals available on the market that can falsify the result when mixed with urine.
Laboratory tests
Toxicological tests performed in the laboratory are performed by taking a sample of blood or urine. Click here to read more about the tests. In exceptional cases, hair can be used for the detection of narcotics in the blood. Needless to say, the laboratory tests are far more reliable than indicative screening tests. They can be requested by individuals who might want to take them in case their indicative tests turned positive, or by an institution such as police, school, or an employer.
How long after ingestion can the narcotic substances be detected in urine? This depends on their type as well as on the tested user, especially on his intensity of use (length and regularity), on the strength of the substance used and also on the individual characteristics of the tested person (age, weight, metabolic rate, urine pH, general health, any developed tolerance to the substance used, etc.). Due to these many variables, all of which play a role at the same time, it is not possible to determine the exact detection time for a particular person.
For cocaine, the retention time in urine is 3-6 hours, but its metabolites last 1-4 days, in chronic drug addicts up to five days. Morphine and heroin can be proven between two hours and three days after the last dose was taken. The groups of methamphetamine drugs and the MDMA drugs (including ecstasy and dance drug) remain in the blood for up to four days. The same goes for amphetamines.
Marijuana whose main active ingredient is tetrahydrocannabinol can be detected in about 6-15 hours after single ingestion, up to ten days for occasional use and up to one month or even longer with the regular users of this drug. The users of marijuana should also keep in
mind that THC compounds are much longer in the blood than in the urine. If the marijuana detection test is explicitly required, blood will be taken in the laboratory.
For drugs such as Diazepam (Valium), detection after 1-2 hours is the earliest. Here is some more info about this drug: https://www.drugs.com/diazepam.html. It remains in the human organism for a period of two or three days. However, regular users can test positive for Diazepam for up to six weeks.
