3 Easy Ways to Drug Test at Home for Marijuana

January 4th, 2010  

Marijuana is one of the most easily available drugs these days and a marijuana drug test that can be done at home is one of the best and easiest ways that can be used to confirm the presence of drugs in the system. The home drug test specimen that is used can be saliva, urine or hair, depending on the specific test that you have chosen.

Depending on the type of sample that is chosen for testing, the results of the test can be known within minutes or days. In addition to that, different samples can provide accurate drug testing for a specific period of time. This means that a marijuana drug test should be chosen based on the time period that you suspect for consumption. The detection periods for each of the home drug tests are preset. However, it should be noted that these differ based on weight, drug tolerance levels, metabolic rate, gender, age, urine ph and overall health.

Recent consumption can be detected using a home test that analyzes a urine sample or a saliva sample. Since marijuana takes a longer time to make it though the scalp then it does into saliva or urine, the hair drug test is generally used for detection of drugs in a longer detection period.

The details of each test are given below.

– Hair drug test – This home drug test is the most enduring and can be used to check if any drug has been consumed within a window of 90 days. The test that uses a properly collected sample of hair can test other drugs like cocaine, opiates, PCP and amphetamines along with marijuana. In most cases, there is a specified way in which the specimen has to be collected. This specimen is then required to be sent to the laboratory via first class mail or courier services. To maintain confidentiality the results are almost always available online and sometimes by phone.

– Saliva drug test – This marijuana test is a practically instantaneous way of getting results and can allow you to assess whether someone has been taking marijuana (among other drugs) in a matter of minutes. The accuracy is evaluated and estimated to be around 97% making this a very popular test with parents and educational institutions. The only things required for this are a mouth and a gum swab. This test is used when you want to confirm consumption that has just taken place since marijuana appears in the saliva about an hour after consumption and generally disappears 12 hours after consumption or earlier.

– Urine drug test – Another test that can be used to get results almost immediately, this test does not require you to send any sample to a laboratory. The home test kit can help you test up to twelve drugs at the same time, marijuana among them. Marijuana appears in a urine sample about 2 to 5 hours after consumption and is detectable for up to 15 to 30 days if the person is a heavy smoker. People that use marijuana less frequently will have a shorter detection period and it will not stay in their urine for as long a time.

A home drug test that detects marijuana can be an efficient tool for parents, especially when used judiciously to avoid causing harm to the relationship between parent and child. These easy tests can be the first step in a parent-child conversation about drugs, or the first step toward ending a marijuana habit.  If you have any questions about these tests, be sure to contact us.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Hair Drug Test Information – Things You Might Not Have Known

November 30th, 2009   2 Comments

Hair drug testing is a growing but still somewhat unfamiliar drug testing process.  People have questions all the time about it, so we decided to create a guide to the most important aspects of this home drug test process.

First of all, you are going to need a pretty specific amount of hair.  At least 90 to 120 strands should be collected for submission, and if the hair is short or fine, collect a bit more.

Secondly, where you collect the hair is important.  You must collect it from the scalp – you cannot just snip the ends off the hair.  Although it takes some time to reach this point, drugs become harder to detect as the hair grows out and grows older.  And it is also important to give the hair drug test laboratory a consistent starting point to work with.  That point is a week before the hair was cut – it takes about a week for hair with or without drugs to grow out long enough to be cut and then analyzed.

The third thing to be aware of with this home drug test is that each half inch of hair that you provide represents about a month.  Ideally, you want to provide an inch and a half of hair – that will give you a 90 day drug history. With a consumer test kit, 90 days is the maximum period of analysis for head hair (we will get into body hair later).  You can submit hair a foot in length but only the inch and a half closest to the scalp will be analyzed.  Do not, however, shorten the hair from the other end for that reason.  Your hair drug test will specifically tell you how to collect the hair.

You may also not have known that the hair sample used in a hair drug test is pulverized by the laboratory.  Once in liquid form, they can get to the metabolites inside.  Any accredited laboratory will use this process to determine if drugs are present in the hair.

Now a question often asked is – can I use hair that I collect from a hairbrush for my test?  The answer is no, for a few reasons.  One, you cannot necessarily be sure that all the hair on the brush is from the same person.  Two, when you submit a hair sample for your hair drug test, all the hair must be organized the same way. All the root ends must be together for your submission to be successfully analyzed.  Finally, you may not know how old the hair is on the hairbrush, and end up mixing hair that is a year old with hair that is from this week.  The integrity of the hair drug test will deteriorate.

The last area of interest I want to address is body hair.  Some tests accept body hair, others do not, so you must check with the manufacturer or store to find out.  If body hair can be analyzed by your home drug test hair kit, then you will be able to learn a longer drug history than you can with hair from the head.  An inch and a half of body hair could take you back as long as 5-6 months, possibly longer.

Hair drug testing offers a lot of promise to parents and employers, as it is one of the only tests that can tell you such a long drug history.  The great thing about the home drug test market is that it provides these tests to you without having to go to a laboratory yourself.  The hair is processed by the same accredited laboratories, so the results are just as accurate with the home drug testing method.  

Tags: , , , , ,

How To Incorporate A Home Drug Test Into A Conversation With Your Teen

November 17th, 2009  

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America has come up with a new online tool, “Time to Act” for parents concerned about teen drug use to use. Whether you know or think you know that your child is using anything from nicotine, alcohol, or harder drugs, this is a guide that will help you prepare for the difficult conversation you nonetheless want to and need to have with your teen.

If you are considering incorporating a home drug test into the conversation, you do have various options. If hard drugs are not involved, an alcohol test or nicotine test might be sufficient as a way of keeping a teen on a drug free regimen. These tests are simple to use urine tests and come in packs of 5 (nicotine) or 10 (alcohol) for such a purpose. They are extremely accurate and difficult to dodge.

Or perhaps you are in a different situation – you are not sure what your child may be using. In this case, the option of a multi-drug urine drug test or a hair drug test may be something to consider. For less than 10 dollars, you can find out if your child has been using any of the 12 drugs on the panel (click the link above to see exactly what drugs are included). If your question is along the lines of “how long has this been going on,” hair drug tests can help you answer that by giving you a 90 day history of drug use. We sell many tests that might fill your need in one way or another – our drug test detection times chart is a great resource for figuring out what kind of test could best solve your questions.

Like the “Time to Act” tool, we wish here at Home Health Testing to play a constructive role in helping friends and parents facing such difficult conversations. We hope that not only our products but the quality of our information will help you through any process involving drug use or addiction. Thank you for reading our blog and please feel free to leave a comment!

Update 11/18: We also want to say thanks to the Fuller Youth Institute for recommending us as a resource for a home drug test when talking to a teen and dealing with drug abuse. You can check out their blog entry here: Fuller Youth Institute: Courageous Intervention.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Answering Questions About The Hair Drug Test

October 28th, 2009   12 Comments

(Note: The PDT-90 Test does NOT accept body hair submissions. This article only applies to the HairConfirm Standard/Express product lines.)

The hair follicle drug test is a powerful drug test and one that people have many questions about. One particularly interesting area is the difference between body hair and head hair when you are testing for drugs. What should you consider when deciding what type of hair to submit for your hair home drug test?

The first thing you should ask yourself is what time frame you are interested in. If you are concerned about drug use in the past 90 days, head hair is what you probably want to submit. In most cases it is easier to collect a sample of head hair in the necessary quantity – 90 to 120 strands – than body hair. When collecting body hair you want to collect more than you would when collecting hair, and provide at the very least 100 strands.

However, body hair submissions in a hair drug test situation do have one major advantage – body hair can tell you, if you provide an inch and a half of it in length, a year of drug use history. If you are worried that your child used cocaine in 4 months ago, you may want to submit body hair instead of head hair for your hair follicle drug test.

The reason you can get more information by submitting body hair is that body hair grows more slowly than hair from the head. With either submission, the laboratory will only analyze the inch and a half closest to the root. This is true even if your hair submission is long hair from the head. But this also means that when you choose what hair to submit for your hair follicle drug test, you should keep in mind that body hair grows slowly – it might not be wise to submit body hair if you want to find out about drug use a month ago.

Remember when choosing what type of hair to submit that you cannot mix the two types together when mailing your hair drug test to the lab.

We hope you found this hair drug test information valuable in selecting the type of home drug test you are interested in. Please direct any questions to cs@homehealthtesting.com or call us at 910-815-0209.

Tags: , , , , ,

Hair Drug Test Information

September 24th, 2009   10 Comments

The hair drug test is one of the most effective, and only, ways to determine long-term drug use in the home market.  Each one and a half inch sample of hair reveals a 90 day drug history when analyzed by a laboratory.  The hair test you purchase comes with the storage materials you will need for the hair, and a pre-addressed envelope to be sent off to the laboratory for confidential analysis.

It is impossible to tamper with your hair in such a way to alter the results of a hair drug test.   This is because the laboratory evaluates how much of a particular drug’s molecules are embedded in your hair shaft.  Anti-drug shampooing will not effect the hair or alter the results.  This method also eliminates external contamination as a factor.

If you are concerned that you will be unable to collect hair from the head that is long enough for the test, note that two of our hair drug tests accept body hair submissions.  Those tests are the Express HairConfirm Hair Drug Test and the Standard HairConfirm Hair Drug Test.  You cannot mix body hair and head hair when submitting your test though.  Body hair grows much more slowly than head hair and though tested the same way it must be evaluated differently due to the slow growth  – if you were to mix the two types of hair, you wouldn’t have enough of either type to give you an accurate drug history.

A hair drug test does not have very complicated instructions and is easy to perform.  It is not recommended however that you cut hair without the consent of the person whose hair is being cut.  Hair from a hairbrush will be difficult to align the way you are supposed to, and also may not be exclusively from the person you want to test.  This is an important point – when submitting a hair follicle drug test, you must be sure to keep all the hair in order, with all the root ends next to each other.  This is necessary for the lab as they measure how far from the root the drug molecules are to determine drug history.

Hair drug testing is a very effective way to determine drug use. You can buy a hair follicle drug test that tests for 6 or 7 drugs.  The drugs in common are marijuana, cocaine, opiates, methamphetamines, ecstasy and PCP.  The 7th drug is amphetamines.  Both PDT and HairConfirm lines are available.  To give you some idea of the effectiveness of Hair Drug Tests, please note that HairConfirm’s hair test technology has been accredited by the Ohio Department of Health, the New York Department of Health, and is a participant in the Federal Voluntary Hair Proficiency Testing Program.

Tags: , , ,