Friday 15 March 2013

What is a Pre-Employment Drug Test?

Many companies these days use drug screening as part of their tools for hiring new workers. For businesses where safety is an issue, it is not only smart but is usually mandated by law that all potential employees pass a drug test before working for that company. Considering that businesses lose about 75 billion dollars a year because of drug abusers in the work place, this is a small price to pay. 

A pre-employment drug test is simply a type of test used by employees to screen for drug use before a candidate is hired. These tests are usually done when the candidate has passed certain qualifications and interviews and are almost ready to be hired. Many large companies these days use drug screening. 

For those who are worried about their upcoming test – don’t worry. As long as you are not a habitual user of drugs, it’s quite easy to pass a test. If you have used drugs in the past but don’t do so anymore, it’s unlikely to show up on the drug test. Many companies use the standard Urine screening test which looks for the more popular drugs today like cannabis, barbiturates, cocaine, amphetamines etc. If you are doing a urine test and are not a habitual user and you haven’t used any drugs in at least 2 weeks, then you have nothing to worry about. If you have an upcoming drug test hair sample and you have recently used drugs, then you can try to delay the test. However if the company is using a hair drug test, it may be more difficult as hair drug tests can show the history of usage for up to 90 days.