Drug Tests

Workplace alcohol and drug testing, in form of random controls, is of increasing importance in security related sectors. Being forensically accredited, our laboratory offers and performs on-site ADM-testing (alcohol – drug – prescription medicine testing) nationwide.

In most industrial countries if a driver loses his driving license as a result of drug or alcohol offense he has to prove abstinence for several months up to one year.<br />The exact conditions of drug testing in urine or hair are different from country to country and depend on the individual situation.

For many years, urine has been the preferred specimen for drug of abuse testing. Depending on the substance or metabolite tested, the type of consumption (smoking, sniffing, injection), the dose and the frequency of consumption, drugs can be measured for several days or weeks. Samples then are collected under direct supervision to minimize manipulation attempts.

In the last few years hair testing for drugs has been rapidly gaining recognition. During hair growth (about 1 cm per month for head hair) drugs of abuse and their metabolites are continuously incorporated and deposited into the hair matrix following consumption of alcohol or drugs.

The testing of drugs in saliva is a rather new alternative to the analysis of drugs in blood or urine. Particularly in workplace drug testing, a sample can be collected without medical intervention to prove or exclude exposure to drugs of abuse.

Blood, serum or plasma are the matrices of choice for toxicological analyses if the objective is to assess the acute impact of a drug of abuse on a person.

Chromatographic drug analyses (LC-MS/MS) in capillary blood and DBS (dried blood samples) respectively are of increasing importance.

Drug abuse during pregnancy poses a serious threat to the normal development of the foetus.