Cocaine Drug Tests

Many employers in certain industries screen their staff in order to comply with the law, and to ensure they are fit to perform their duties. Even employers not in these industries are choosing to perform drug testing on their staff just because they don’t want drugs or alcohol in the workplace. Cocaine drug tests aren’t usually administered alone, but form part of a test that will detect many metabolites or compounds of a whole range of substances.

Federal government guidelines formulated by SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, require that companies who have workers with commercial drivers licenses have such a drug testing process in place. The tests should be able to detect five drugs, called the “SAMHSA 5.” These drugs are Phencyclidine (PHP), Opiates (Heroin, morphine, etc), Cocaine, Cannabinoids and Amphetamines. Many companies also offer expanded detection tests for substances such as MDMA, Ethanol, Methadone and others.

Cocaine drug tests have mixed results. As the substance is metabolized extremely quickly, the detection times are short. In a saliva test the detection period is just 1 day. In a urine test the metabolite can be detected up to 5 days later. It is actually benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, that is being measured in a cocaine drug test. The hair test is currently the most reliable test, being able to detect cocaine use up to 90 days later. However, it’s also the most intrusive and time-consuming test there is. They are intrusive in the respect that the test cannot be carried out on a single hair, the test needs several of a length of at least 1.5 inches.

Cocaine drug tests, in fact any kind of drugs test, depend entirely on the age, weight, fitness and biology of the subject. If the subject is extremely fit, unusually tolerant to drugs, or has a high urine PH level, the test results will be skewed, prompting further testing. Therefore, any detection time is approximate only and should only be used as a guide. The best way to pass a cocaine drug test is to not do cocaine. As most employee drugs test detect a multitude of drugs, it’s best not to do any of them.

A urine level of 300 micrograms per liter of benzoylecgonine is regarded as a positive result for cocaine. However, these levels can vary depending on when the test is performed. For example, samples taken first thing in the morning will provide the highest concentrations of drug metabolites. Testing urine at other times of the day will yield differing results. The concentration of urine itself changes throughout the day as the body metabolizes. Because of this, a cocaine user can provide a negative sample depending on the time of day the drug is administered. Many habitual users will try to fool a cocaine drug test by drinking lots of water throughout the day to flush their system.

Since cocaine drug tests can be a little inaccurate, the only truly reliable method is to use a hair test, which involves expense, and a significant sample of the subjects hair. The test is regarded as being as accurate as possible, so should be considered to prove cocaine use beyond reasonable doubt.