Drug testing is required of individuals for many different reasons. Prospective employers often request that applicants under a hair follicle drug test to find suitable candidates who do not take any type of drugs. Taking drugs can cloud your judgment and cause numerous psychological and physical problems that may affect your work.
Coaches and sports organizations may requires athletes, both amateur and professional, to have drug testing, as taking drugs can give them an undeserved competitive advantage and cause major health problems. Many of today’s parents are even resorting to making their children submit to hair drug testing if they are concerned that they may be taking drugs.
A hair follicle drug test is actually one of the simplest forms of drug testing currently available. The only requirement is that a person submits a simple sample of their hair, which is very easy to do. After a hair sample is collected, it is mailed in a sealed envelope to a lab to be tested.
Hair drug testing is also advantageous because it is able to detect any type of drug use within the past 90 days. Therefore, the results of the test will still show up as positive, even if an individual has taken drugs approximately 3 months earlier. Other tests such as urine and saliva tests are very different and can only determine if an individual has taken drugs within a time frame of a few days. The reason that drugs can be tested for a much longer time frame is that small amounts of chemicals from the drugs are trapped within each strand of hair.
Compared to other available drug testing methods, hair drug testing is one of the fastest and most accurate. A hair follicle drug test is often chosen because its accuracy rate is usually ten times higher than other existing drug testing methods. That is why so many coaches, companies and individuals choose this method – they want very accurate results.
The confidentiality of hair testing is yet another reason why it is often the preferred drug testing method. There is no need for people to be embarrassed by having to provide a urine or saliva sample. By merely submitting a few strands of hair, very accurate results can be produced.