General information about drug testing in the United States

Drug tests in the United States can be divided into two general groups, federal mandated and general workplace.

While SAMHSA/NIDA guidelines only allow laboratories to report quantitative results for the “NIDA-5” on their official NIDA tests, many drug testing laboratories and on-site tests now offer a wider or “more appropriate” set of drug screens which may be more reflective of current drug use patterns. As noted above, these tests include synthetic pain killers such as Oxycodone (Oxycontin, Percocet), Oxymorphone, Hydrocodone (Vicodin), Hydromorphone; benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, Klonopin, Restoril) and barbiturates.

Other drugs, such as meperidine (Demerol), fentanyl, propoxyphene, and methadone are not commonly tested for in most pre-employment situations, however, are being increasing included in random testing.

A confirmation test (usually GC/MS, or LC/MS/MS) can tell the difference between chemically similar drugs such as methamphetamine and methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy).