The federal government and many drug testing organizations and companies prefer urine drug tests. But it is a known fact that some companies are moving towards hair drug tests to identify drug usage among employees and new hires for a longer period.
A hair follicle drug test can detect drug presence consumed before 90 days, whereas the urine drug test can detect the recent use instantly using the best drug testing kits. Both have their pros and cons. This blog is determined to draw a comparison between the urine and hair drug tests that could help you weigh your options and choose the best one that could suit your organization structure.
What is a Urine Drug Test?
The urine drug test is the primary drug test conducted by government and private agencies during the pre-employment, random, and post-accident drug tests. The Department of Transportation has approved the urine drug test as their primary drug testing method for drug testing employees and new hires applying for transportation and other safety-sensitive jobs.
Urine drug tests are known for their accuracy. They can be conducted anywhere and can produce immediate results within minutes. You can even test yourself with high-quality home-based urine drug testing kits before attending your original drug test.
Some organizations may conduct supervised drug tests to prevent the candidates from tampering with the sample. This might lead to a breach of privacy. The conducting organization should draw an effective line on preserving privacy and conducting the drug test.
A urine drug test may extend to a confirmation test if the given sample produces a false positive or diluted sample. A hair drug test would be considered for a confirmation test. It may be conducted via GC/MS that can provide accurate methods, including the level of drugs present in the system.
What is a Hair Drug Test?
A hair drug test is a kind of drug test conducted by using the hair follicle as a specimen to identify the drug traces in the system. The hair drug test can showcase the drug traces for a longer period (say, 90 days) than other specimens used for testing.
Once you consume the drug, the drug metabolizes in your blood, and the blood travels to all the parts of the body, including your hair strands. The drug in the hair strands gets trapped within the dead cells and remains longer in your hair than in any other specimen.
During the hair drug test, the tester will collect 100 to 120 hair strands from the crown region of your head. If there is no hair in the crown region, the tester will collect from other areas of your head. If you are bald, the hair from any other areas of your body can be collected and tested for drugs.
Hair drug tests are cheat-proof, and there are rare chances that you could get false-positive results. You cannot fake your hair drug test as the hair samples would be collected from your body during your drug test. But you can act proactive by using trusted home-based hair drug test kits from a trusted online drug store to determine the drug traces before attending your real hair drug test.
Despite all the pros, the hair drug test is not recommended in many organizations as it is expensive, and it might take 2 to 3 days to know the result.
Which is the best – Urine or Hair drug test?
There cannot be an explicit winner as both have their uniqueness, and they play a significant role in identifying drug traces. But we can weigh the pros and cons using certain factors.
Accuracy
The hair drug test may be conducted in two phases – ELISA and GC/MS for confirmation. But urine drug tests can be performed instantly using drug test kits to produce instant results with high accuracy.
Identification of drugs
The urine drug test can identify up to 12 drugs instantly. The hair drug test can identify ten illicit drugs and four prescription drugs accurately.
Reliability
When it comes to reliability, hair drug tests are more reliable than urine drug test results. The test results from instant drug testing kits are not considered or officially accepted in many institutions. Lab-tested hair drug test results are formally accepted by some MNC’s.
Detection Window
Hair drug tests can help detect the drugs consumed before 90 days, whereas the urine drug test can identify the drug traces 3 to 4 weeks before using. Urine drug tests can track short time consumption, whereas hair drug tests can track long time usage.
Tampering
There are chances that you can tamper with your urine drug test results, but you cannot tamper or falsify the hair drug results.
Cost and Time
The cost to conduct urine drug tests is cheaper than conducting hair drug tests. But Urine drug results can be known within minutes if you use the best drug testing kits. But Hair drug tests may take 2 to 3 days to get the results.
Verdict
It is great to conduct urine drug testing if you want to get the results instantly and have a huge employer and candidate base. If you want quality results and need to track long-time drug abuse, a Hair drug test could be the best choice.
