Who Uses A Marijuana Drug Test?

Marijuana drug tests are used by people of all stripes in all sorts of situations - parents, employees, employers, schools and coaches. As I posted recently, 84% of employers require drug tests when hiring new employees. Today we'll look at an interesting case studies of how drug use affects particular industries.

William F. Current in "Indian Country Today," writes about the gaming industry, which is often said to have a high rate of drug abuse. He offers this 2007 statistic from SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration): 10.4 % of full-time workers in the “Amusement, Gambling and Recreation Industries” admit to “past-month” illicit drug use. 18.4% of "Food Services" and "Drinking Places" industries' workers admit to "past-month" illicit drug use.

It is no wonder then that drug testing proves so popular with employers. Mr. Current provides another interesting statistic that suggests why drug testing is used in the workplace so frequently:

"A compelling study by the U.S. Postal Service found that substance abusers, when compared to non-substance abusing coworkers, are involved in 55 percent more accidents, and sustain 85 percent more on-the-job injuries according to the SAID Web site." [emphasis supplied.]

Those are pretty astonishing figures. SAID is the Substance Abuse Information Database, maintained by the US Department of Labor. Statistics there too suggest why an employer might want to marijuana drug test their employees: "75 percent of the nation’s current illegal drug users are employed—and 3.1 percent say they have actually used illegal drugs before or during work hours."

Employers don't necessarily need to outsource drug testing - they can use a home drug test to meet their needs. Why pay someone to come into your workplace when you can buy an FDA approved urine drug test?

As Drug-Free Work Week comes around the corner (it's happening October 19-25 this year), it could be time for some employers to think about the usefulness of home drug tests. Hair, saliva, and urine tests - even substance tests - are all available at Home Health Testing.

How to Choose A Marijuana Drug Test

Since marijuana is the most commonly used illegal drug in America - more than 94 million Americans have tried it at least once according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse - it is no surprise that there are a variety of ways to drug test for marijuana. Each of type of test has a unique selling point. A marijuana drug test can come in one of a few forms: a hair, saliva, or urine drug test.

Choosing the right test requires identifying what you want to learn from the test. One very important aspect of this is knowing the detection window offered by a drug test. This handy chart helps explain. You also need to ask yourself what type of material you'd like to handle for the test. Urine can be a biological hazard, hair may be difficult to collect, and drugs can be detected in saliva for only a relatively short time.

In the workplace, the urine drug test is most common, in part because the hair drug test is so expensive. According to the Ledger's Gary White, hair testing is about 60% more expensive than urine testing for employers. But the most interesting statistic of the article is this one - according to a 2006 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, 84% of employers required new hires to pass drug screenings.

This remarkable number suggests the prevalence of drug testing today. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association (SAMHSA), a federal agency, has set guidelines for laboratories handling the urine tests of federal employees. For a marijuana drug test, that cutoff level is 50 nanograms per mililiter. If a test is positive at that level, then a confirmatory test is conducted at a smaller, even more precise level.

Home Health Testing offers a number of marijuana drug tests for consumer use that meet the SAMHSA guidelines. These tests include the iCup and the urine stick test. These home drug tests, and more can be purchased at very affordable prices here, Home Health Testing's marijuana related products page.