What do laboratory's look for when screening for drugs?

Answer 1

The NIDA 5 Federal government guidelines (by NIDA-The National Institute on Drug Abuse and SAMHSA-the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) require that companies which use commercial class drivers licenses for employees must have a testing system in place. Among other things, this required testing program must test for 5 specific categories of drugs (sometimes referred to as the "NIDA 5"). Because of this federal requirement, most drug testing companies offer a basic drug test that checks for drugs in these 5 common categories. Click on the substance name for a description of the laboratory method for detecting the substance. Cannabinoids (marijuana, hash) Cocaine (cocaine, crack, benzoylecognine) Amphetamines (amphetamines, methamphetamines, speed) Opiates (heroin, opium, codeine, morphine) Phencyclidine (PCP) Expanded Tests Most drug testing companies also offer an expanded test which includes a few additional drugs in the testing process. Most do not add all of these in their expanded test, but choose a different combination of 3 or 4 to add : Barbiturates (Phenobarbital, Secobarbitol, Butalbital) Hydrocodone (Lortab, Vicodin) Methaqualone (Qualuudes) Benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, Librium, Serax, Rohypnol) Methadone Propoxyphene (Darvon compounds) Ethanol (Alcohol) MDMA (Ecstasy) Additional Testables In addition, there are a few other substances which it is possible but quite unusual to test for. I only found reference to testing for these additional substances at 1 (out of 15) drug testing sites : LSD Tryptamines (Psilocybin, AMT, DMT, DPT, 5-MeO-DiPT) Phenethylamines (Mescaline, MDMA, MDA, MDE, 2C-B, 2C-T-7) Inhalents (Toluene, Xylene, Benzene) This was taken from erowid.org/psychoactives/testing/testing.shtml Which a a great resource for further study.