Pre-employment Drug Testing: Urinalysis versus Hair Analysis
Pre-employment drug testing through urine analysis is not the most effective way to test potential employees for illicit drug use. There are too many ways to alter a urine drug test and, with the exception of marijuana, urinalysis tests only show positive for drugs that have been used within two to three days of the test. Hair analysis is a far more effective way to screen for illegal drug use as it shows drug use and drug history for several months.
Carol Patten quotes a report that was just released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration stating that while drug use is more prevalent among the unemployed, 70% of people ages 18-49 who reported current illicit drug use or heavy drinker were currently employed. This means that 7.6% of all full time workers reported current illicit drug use. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) defines illicit drug as having used an illegal drug or a legal drug in an illegal fashion within the past 30 days.
Employers understand this is costing them money. The bill for substance abuse problems includes much higher usage of medical benefits, increased sick time usage, absenteeism and lost production time. Because of this more and more corporations are requiring candidates to pass pre-employment drug tests upon acceptance of job offers.
There are different methods of drug testing; however, urinalysis is the most commonly used. The results of a urine test will show the presence or absence of drug metabolites in a person’s urine. Metabolites are drug residues that remain in the body for some time after ...