How Do Drug Metabolites Reach The Hair Strands?

Now, that you know the entire hair drug test procedure, it is also essential to know as how does drug components reside in hair follicle or hair strand. After consuming drugs, the toxins disperse in the body through bloodstream. The hair follicles absorb drug metabolites from the blood and it continues to absorb the toxins until drugs stays in blood. Other new methods of hair drug test include EIA (Enzyme Immunoassay) method, which measures the molecules of drug metabolites present in the hair. Thus, hair drug test provides higher accuracy and gives exact results as compared to other drug tests.

Hair Drug Test Procedures

Most hair drugs tests require about sixty hair strands at the length of 1 ½ inches. They clip the hair, which are grown since last ninety days. Some labs will not test for new hair, grown in last one month. They may acquire body hair, if necessary. Examiners clip those hair strands, which are close to the back of head. They then wash it with solutions to eliminate external contamination. Later, they place those strands in an organic solvent and implement testing methods as specified by DOT and FDA. They use GC/MS (gas chromatography / mass spectrometry) method to perform drug analysis on every single molecular level to find out specific metabolites of drug in the hair sample. At this stage, drug metabolites separate out and testers can easily locate the specific type of drug. The intensity of drug molecules show whether you take drugs frequently or not. It also detects as when you took drugs. The cut-off levels in GC/MS hair drug test is as per the cut-off levels determined by the FDA. If the levels of drugs in your hair strands are equal to or above the cut-off levels, it means the outcome of hair drug test is positive, and if levels of drug are less than the cut-off levels, the outcome of the test is negative.

What Is A Hair Drug Test ?

Hair drug test helps in detecting the drugs present in body, even the drug samples, which were consumed long back. Thus, this test is far more superior to urine drug test, because urine tests detect drugs, which were taken very recently. Hair test is usually preferred by law agencies, doping bureaus and other institutions. Law agencies send hair samples to forensic departments to perform the test, whereas other bureaus and institutions have their own full fledge laboratories, where examiners conduct hair drug test. Some bureaus also rely on hair drug test to find out the drug patterns. That means it determines as which drugs individuals had consumed, and when did they discontinued using them. If drug does not migrate along the hair shaft, testers conduct the same test on relative long hair segment to draw the results. This test can also reliably make a distinction between opiate as well as poppy seeds usage. Hair drug test detects a wide array of drugs such as cocaine, opiates, MDMA, Phencyclidine (PCP), Amphetamine, Cannabis, Benzodiazepines, barbiturates and Methamphetamine.