Court Mandated Drug, Alcohol & DNA Testing

These two sample types, hair, and nail, are collected under direct observation, which makes it difficult to adulterate or cheat. Body hair and toenails accumulate more biomarkers due to their slower growth rate, which in turn extends the detection window up to 12 months. Both hair and nail testing share the disadvantage of not being able to detect recent or short-term drug abuse within the most recent 2 weeks. It takes 7 to 10 days for any drug(s) to metabolize through the blood vessels and grow out either through the hair follicle or the nail bed.

The most common types of tests mandated by the court are court hair tests and court ordered finger and toenail tests. Both specimens have a longer detection period than any other kinds of specimens. Substance abuse hair testing offers up to a 90-day window for detection of drug use prior to the test date, and nail testing has a window of detection of approximately 3-6 months. Most laboratories only guarantee results up to 3 months in the workplace.

There are many situations in which someone may be legally required to undergo court ordered alcohol testing and drug testing, including:

• Agreements between divorcing spouses
  Drug tests in family court cases are often required if there has been domestic violence and when child custody arrangements are being determined.
• Court ordered drug tests for child custody
  Parental drug abuse often puts children in unsafe and unstable situations. That’s why it’s a crucial factor in determining which parent gets custody rights. If you need to request drug testing for a child custody case, give DATCS a call.
• Probation drug testing
  Probation drug tests are used as a deterrent aimed at helping convicted individuals stay clean and sober.
• Alcohol testing For DUI or DWI arrests
  The court may mandate testing to gather evidence of alcohol consumption following a DUI or DWI arrest.

Hair and nail drug testing are collected under direct observation, which makes it difficult to adulterate or cheat. Body hair and toenails accumulate more biomarkers due to their slower growth rate, which in turn extends the detection window up to 12 months.

Over the last few years, hair testing has become popular with employers throughout the United States. Hair testing provides nearly twice the number of positives due to its longer detection window, and it’s hard to adulterate the specimen.

What are the disadvantages of hair and nail tests?

If your desired testing window is within the past 12 hours, it would not be recommended that a hair or nail test be conducted.

Both hair and nail testing share the disadvantage of not being able to detect recent or short term drug abuse within the most recent 2 weeks. It takes 7 to 10 days for any drug(s) to metabolize through the blood vessels and grow out either through the hair follicle or the nail bed.  

Oral fluid specimens have a shorter detection period and produce higher positive results than urine or hair samples. The reasons oral fluid testing is becoming popular are:

• Always conducted under observation
• No definitive way to adulterate an oral fluid test, if the donor was under observation for ten minutes prior to completion.

• Hair
• Urine for drugs
• Urine for alcohol
• Urine ETG – that are ethyl glucuronide and ethyl sulfate are metabolites of ethanol (alcohol) that is present in urine after ingestion of ethyl alcohol. ETG is excreted in urine for a prolonged time, which makes this test useful to measure alcohol intake. The presence of this biomarker will indicate that ethanol was ingested within the previous 3 to 4 days, or approximately 80 hours after the body has eliminated the ethanol. The test specimen is submitted to a laboratory for examination by LC/MS (liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry)
• Nail
• Saliva
• DNA (for paternity, siblingship, grandparent age, and others)   

Court admissible drug testing requires laboratory confirmation for all non-negative results. Our protocol recommends all laboratory positive results be forwarded to a Medical Review Officer, provided by DATCS, to confirm any prescription usage by the donor that may interfere with test results.