OxyContin Tests Turn the Home Drug Test Market Around and Fill A Vital Niche for Parents

November 16th, 2009   12 Comments

The Problem of Prescription Oxycodone Abuse

As you may know, prescription drug abuse has developed into a huge problem in the United States. For example, a 2005 Monitoring the Future survey of high school students showed that OxyContin abuse went up among 12th graders by 40 percent in 3 years. OxyContin is one of the many generic names for drugs that include the narcotic oxycodone.

When used as prescribed, drugs like OxyContin and Percocet (which also contains oxycodone) provide much needed pain relief to cancer patients and people recovering from surgery. When incorrectly used however, OxyContin earns its nickname “hillbilly heroin” by producing heroin-like highs in the user and doing so in many cases more cheaply than heroin itself. This is why the Oxycodone, or OxyContin Test, developed – in response to a growing problem that needed a solution.

Before the OxyContin Test was made, there was no 98% accurate way for a urine drug test buyer to test for oxycodone based drugs, even though they do have much in common with opium and heroin, drugs which can all be tested for at once.

The Difference Between Opiates and Opioids

To understand why oxycodone needs its own home drug test, first we must examine how the drugs of concern here are classified. They are all opioids. Opioids are chemicals that work on the brain’s opioid receptors. Endorphins, for example, are opioids produced naturally by the body. Morphine, opium, heroin, oxycodone, and hydrocodone (Vicodin) are all opioids too. They are so similar, but they cannot all be detected by the same drug screen. Why?

FDA cleared urine drug tests for Opiates that are on the market are made to detect specifically morphine or specifically heroin. An Opiates test that has a 300 nanogram per milliliter cutoff level is one that is looking for morphine-based drugs, while an Opiates test that has a 2000 nanogram per milliliter cutoff level is looking for heroin and opium. Morphine does have a lot in common with oxycodone, as they are both opioids, but morphine can be found naturally, whereas oxycodone cannot. Oxycodone must be made in a lab. This leads to some structural differences.

While a urine drug test for Opiates can pick up morphine, heroin, and so on, depending on the cut-off level, it can only detect oxycodone/OxyContin in great quantities – overdose levels. So a new design was called for to deal with the prescription drug abuse problem.

The OxyContin / Vicodin Test

The same technology used to create other urine drug tests was used to make the oxycodone test. It can pick up OxyContin, Vicodin (made of acetaminophen and hydrocodone, a drug very similar to oxycodone), Percocet and other hydrocodone, hydromorphone, or oxycodone-based drugs with 98% accuracy. This is a much greater accuracy for these drugs than was available with either of the two versions of the opiates urine drug test. Depending on metabolism and other factors, oxycodone appears in urine 2-5 hours after it is used and disappears from urine 2-4 days later. The new oxycodone specific drug tests can find oxycodone in urine at the level of 100 nanograms per milliliter, a very small amount.

Making the Right Choices as a Consumer of a Home Drug Test

Whether you are a member of a police department, a worried parent or a friend, it is important to have the right information in hand when making a decision about how to deal with drug abuse. If you suspect drug abuse and want to test for it, make sure you choose a test that targets the drug at hand. You might think that an opiates drug test could detect oxycodone, since opiates in general and oxycodone are very similar. This is not the case when it comes to home drug tests though and a careful shopper will have the most success in finding oxycodone.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Nicotine Test – Do You Need One? We Help You Find Out

November 11th, 2009   1 Comment

With the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout coming up on November 19, you may be in a position of wanting to take the opportunity to quit. But how should you quit? There are so many strategies, among them our very own nicotine test. Some use it as a monitoring tool so friends or family can help keep them honest in terms of truly quitting.

But in addition to using a nicotine test to quit, you may also want additional help and resources, one of the reasons why the link above is so great. We also found this easy 6 question test brought to you by the University of Maryland Medical System. It’s a nicotine dependency test. Based on your answers to the questions, the test will tell you how dependent you are and what methods of quitting might best help you – behavior modification, nicotine replacement therapy, etc.

Now of course, you can buy a nicotine test at any time during the year, and you can access great “how to quit smoking” features online all the time too. The US government set up a website entirely dedicated to quitting smoking at Smoke Free. Smoke Free.gov recognizes the difficulty of quitting and the unique journey everyone makes. Controlling a craving for a cigarette can be extremely difficult – that is why some people use a nicotine test as a benchmark to prove they did not smoke, for themselves and for others who may be helping them in their quitting effort. Knowing that a cigarette might be the difference between passing or failing a tobacco test is a strong motivator. You want to both beat the habit and pass the test. Our packaging is ideal for this kind of use, as this home drug test comes bundled in five and ten packs.

Home Health Testing wants you to know that there are plenty of resources out there to help you quit smoking, and you are not alone in doing it! You can make November 19, or any day, the beginning of your effort. Check out the links in our article and/or head to our nicotine test page to purchase a test.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Meth Test – Your Home Drug Test Options

November 5th, 2009  

Meth is an extremely dangerous drug, the abuse of which has resulted in many families and individuals feeling the effects of far too many overdoses and far too many arrests. You can find out how it affects Americans state by state at the government hosted website, Meth Resources. Fortunately, you can home drug test for meth, and do so with great accuracy: for example, the urine drug test for meth is over 99% accurate.

So when it comes to choosing a meth test, how do you choose one? Which one works best for your purposes? We try to make sure people are clear on what test will work for them.

Meth Test: Urine Drug Test

This test is over 99% accurate and is very simple to use. Meth appears in urine about 2-5 hours after consumption, and can still be detected in urine for as long as 3-5 days after use. All you need for this home drug test is a urine sample and a timer. If you wish to test for meth in conjunction with other drugs, there are 4 drug and 10/10+ drug options, all of which test for meth in addition to other drugs. These tests have all been cleared by the FDA. So if you are looking for recent drug use this is the best test.

Meth Test: Saliva Drug Test

If you are looking to know if somebody is currently high, this test will tell you. As early as 10 minutes after use, this test will pick up methamphetamine in saliva. It is also really easy to use and not messy to administer. Meth can stay in saliva for up to 3 days.

Meth Test: Hair Drug Test

You may have heard about special shampoos and other things that make passing a hair drug test possible. Don’t worry – they don’t work. This test can answer your questions about long term drug use. A hair drug test requires only a small sample of hair – body or head hair (although be aware the PDT-90 test does not accept body hair; the others do) – and the sample once analyzed by the laboratory will tell you a 90 day drug history. In the case of body hair, a history of up to 5-6 months can be obtained. You have to wait for the drug to grow out from the root of the hair though – in the case of head hair, that’s about a week, in the case of body hair which grows more slowly, the time you must wait is longer.

When you have information, it should not be difficult to choose the home drug test that fits your needs. If you have any questions, please call 910-815-0209 to speak to a customer service representative or email Home Health Testing at cs@homehealthtesting.com.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

The Oxycodone Test – How/What It Tests For

October 22nd, 2009  

This month is National Medicine Abuse Awareness Month.  In that spirit we are going to focus on prescription drugs and prescription drug tests, such as our Oxycodone Test.  Keep reading to learn more about this dangerous drug, and look forward to a future installment on our Xanax Drug Test.

If you are a parent and suspect drug use in your teenager, you may want to learn more about oxycodone (popularly known by one its commercial names, OxyContin) the drug that is devastating communities across the country with its extremely dangerous and addictive effects on the user.  It might surprise you that this painkiller can be abused in such a way that it affects the body like heroin.  This dangerousness is one of the reasons we sell an OxyContin Test.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) when abused, OxyContin can be ingested, but also smoked, snorted, or injected.  OxyContin is designed to slowly release oxycodone, but when abused in these ways the time-release mechanism is eliminated and the high is powerful and fast.  Instead of feeling its effects over 12 hours you feel it immediately.  Use can be detected as long as two to four days later by an Oxycodone Test.  Withdrawal is extremely painful, as recounted in this NPR report:

But just a week after he started using OxyContin, Ryan realized that if he didn’t get a pill every day or two, he’d start to feel sick. So he kept using it. He says he had no idea how bad he was hooked until the next time he tried to stop.

“It was like somebody was inside of your head with a hammer,” Ryan recalls. “You feel like you’re going to die. Just laying there in the bed, sweat pouring off of you… Then five minutes later, you’re freezing… then you’d be throwing up.”

Prescription drug abuse results in a great number of overdoses, and leads to further drug use – as NPR notes some OxyContin users turn to heroin for the same high.

OxyContin is not a drug to be taken lightly, which is why we offer an OxyContin Test that simultaneously tests for similar and similarly dangerous prescription drugs – it is a Vicodin Test, and a Percocet and Percodan Home Drug Test too.  If you are interested please visit our page for this test for more resources.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Preparing for a Urine Drug Test

October 12th, 2009  

The urine drug test is one of the most commonly used types of drug tests.  Urine drug tests are cheap and extremely accurate – for example, our FDA approved marijuana urine test is 98% accurate.

Another name for urine drug testing is urinalysis.  Urinalysis is the chemical, physical, and microscopic examination of urine, and a common method of diagnosing medical disorders.  While a doctor may examine the physical appearance of a urine sample to determine whether the donor has a urinary tract infection, a home drug test using urine relies upon chemical analysis of urine, a method which is so easy that it can be performed successfully by you in your own home.

Medline Plus, an official government service, provides some tips on collecting urine for a urine drug test.  When performing any of the urine drug tests from Home Health Testing, please be aware that you can collect urine at any time of the day.  Collect the urine in a clean and dry container.

Medline Plus has additional advice on how to collect a urine sample cleanly:

“It is necessary to collect a “clean-catch” (midstream) urine sample. To obtain a clean-catch sample, men or boys should wipe clean the head of the penis with a moist cloth or alcohol square. Women or girls need to wash the area between the lips of the vagina with soapy water and rinse well.

As you start to urinate, allow a small amount to fall into the toilet bowl (this clears the urethra of contaminants). Then, in a clean container, catch about 1 – 2 ounces of urine and remove the container from the urine stream.”

Make sure that you collect enough urine so that the strips of your test card can be immersed to the level of the way lines on the strip. If you follow the instructions that come with the urine drug test, you should have no problem in getting accurate results in the privacy of your own home.

Tags: , , ,