When urine drug testing first started, decades ago, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) required that companies who use professional drivers, specified safety sensitive transportation and/or oil and gas related occupations, and certain federal employers be tested for the presence of five basic drugs: Cannabinoids (marijuana), Cocaine, Amphetamine, Opiate and Phencyclidine (PCP).
Since that time, many state and local governments have adopted similar laws and initiated their own drug-free workplace programs. Now, drug testing has expanded into multiple phases beyond the the norm of pre-employment and random testing. New protocols include: post-accident testing, return to duty testing, probable cause and now even follow-up drug testing.
Drug and alcohol testing is now a common place procedure in helping to promote a drug free workplace. In fact, drug testing is not just being done in the workplace, today, drug tests are given to students, athletes, medical patients and of late, a new law has been passed that in some US states that a drug test will now be required for welfare applicants, in some states welfare recipients would be asked to take a drug test on a random basis.
So much has changed through the years, new drugs have emerged that are even more deadly and addictive than ever before. Drugs that are easier to manufacture and more quickly absorbed into the market.
Today, people are not only abusing common drugs like Marijuana, Cocaine and Opiates but now there is a new generation of abusers that are addicted to over-the-counter synthetic drugs (illicit pharmaceutical pills) that are easily available on the black market; pain killers like oxycodone, propoxyphene and buprenorphine. Uppers and downers as well as mood enhancing pills like Ecstasy. Because of this drug test manufactures have included more assays (drug configurations) from the normal 5 drugs, to 13 drugs or more in a single test kit to accommodate for the new influx of available, illegal drugs.
