Picture this. You’re driving along when you notice police up ahead, with what appears to be a booze bus parked nearby. You’re stopped by the police expecting to have to undergo alcohol testing, but instead the police are undertaking drug testing and you’re asked to provide a sample. No problems you think, a sample of what? “Urine”, says the police. “Just take this jar and go behind that tree and… well, you know what to do.”
OK, this is a pretty ridiculous scenario because obviously the police don’t use urine drug testing methods. The most common method in Australia is saliva drug testing and the process is very simple. All you need to do is rub a collection device inside your mouth to provide a sample. There’s no need to get out of your car, no jars, no trees and no wees involved!
And this is one of the key advantages of saliva drug testing over urine drug testing. Its implementation is simple and doesn’t require restroom facilities. It can therefore be undertaken virtually anywhere. Integrity Sampling has conducted drug testing using saliva drug testing in some pretty remote places, so we should know!
So, what are the other advantages of saliva drug testing over urine drug testing?
Saliva drug testing advantages
- For some people, peeing in a jar can be awkward and embarrassing. Add in the fact that urine drug testing collection needs to be supervised somewhat to ensure the integrity of the sample, and the awkwardness of the process can escalate. Saliva drug testing is far less intrusive.
- The detection time of drugs using saliva drug testing is shorter than it is for urine drug testing. This may sound like a negative, and if you think of drug testing as a punishment tool then we can understand that opinion. But when you look at drug testing as it should be, a way to ensure people who are affected by drugs aren’t on the roads and aren’t at work, then it’s a very positive thing. Saliva drug testing is considered a far better measure of a person’s competence to be behind the wheel or at work.
- Accuracy of urine drug testing is generally very good, but, as mentioned above, it does require some supervision to ensure samples aren’t swapped or contaminated. Accuracy of saliva drug testing is also very good – at least 99% with the process and equipment used by Integrity Sampling – and there’s no chance of anyone cheating the process.
Get more details on saliva drug testing
To find out more about saliva drug testing, go to the saliva drug testing page on the Integrity Sampling website.
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Saliva drug testing has some significant advantages over urine drug testing. Credit jf01350 https://www.flickr.com/photos/jf01350/5694915773/in/photostream/
