What We Have Learned From The Tobacco Ban

There are an array of opinions out there about the new bill signed into law by President Obama, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, but the aim of the law seems clear - to prevent kids and young adults from taking up smoking. FDA officials have provided a number of interesting facts about youth drug use in relation to this bill that may have parents wondering if they should pick up a nicotine test for their children.

According to Lawrence Deyton, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco, “Children are three times as likely as adults to smoke a flavored cigarette.” That is why the new law bans the sale of candy, fruit, or clove flavored cigarettes.

While this is a positive step, there are still other facts that may give pause to a parent and possibly interest them in nicotine testing - according to the American Lung Association, every day approx. 3,600 children between 12 and 17 years old try smoking for the first time, and approximately 1,100 of them will become regular smokers. Though the new law will help rectify this situation, some may want to determine tobacco use by using a nicotine test.

Such a drug test works by determining the levels of cotinine in a urine sample. Cotinine is produced when nicotine enters the body. The nicotine test can tell you if the person supplying the sample has chewed or smoked tobacco in the past 2 to 4 days. The test is confidential and accurate. The scientific principles are the same as other urine drug tests offered by Home Health Testing.

For someone worried about tobacco use and addiction, a home drug test can help you learn whether someone is beginning a habit they may regret. It only takes five minutes and provides extremely accurate results. You can purchase this product at Home Health Testing.

Breaking Down the Stats: Drug Use in the United States

SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) has published its 2007 state by state drug use report. The full report can be viewed at their site - we will examine only a few drug use statistics and try to identify what this means for the home drug test world and for the products within it - things like a hair drug test or a urine test.

What we learn vis-a-vis home drug testing from this report is that drug use is concentrated among the young. For example, 8.1% of the US population over the age of 12 had used an illicit drug in the past month. The drug use is concentrated in the population aged 18-25 - 19.77% percent of people in this age bracket admitted to illicit drug use in the past month. The 12-17 age bracket rates at a 9.66% in this category, slightly higher than the overall population. This is no doubt food for thought for someone thinking about buying a home drug test and wondering what sort of home drug testing they should embark upon. In 10 states, more than 10% of the population aged 12-17 admitted to illicit drug use in the past month.

If you look at marijuana use in particular, the results are more drastic. Although 10.2% of those over 12 used marijuana in the past year, 27.7% of young adults 18-25 used marijuana in the past year.

How do you find out if someone has used illicit drugs in the past month, or even abused prescription drugs? Looking at this chart, you can see that a urine drug test is unlikely to capture a full month's drug use. Marijuana stays in the urine longer than any other commonly abused drug, but that depends on frequency of use.

A hair drug test on the other hand exposes a 90 day history of drug use, if the right amount of hair is submitted (an inch and a half in length is required). A hair drug test can test for 7 different categories of drugs and is FDA Approved. Judging by the statistics in this SAMHSA report, home drug testing makes sense. It can be done at home, in the safety and privacy of your own family, and responds to the high rates of drug use among youth in the USA. A variety of tests can be found here at Home Health Testing.

The Valium Drug Test & The Xanax Drug Test - Fighting Prescription Drug Abuse, Part I

Prescription drug abuse is a significant and growing problem in the United States of America - and why we are writing today about the Valium Drug Test and Xanax Drug Test more broadly known as the Benzodiazepines Drug Test. The National Institutes of Health suggests that "an estimated 20 percent of people in the United States have used prescription drugs for nonmedical reasons." There are a variety of categories that a prescription drug of abuse could fall under: narcotic painkillers, stimulants, and sedatives/tranquilizers. There are a lot of drugs out there and doctors write more prescriptions than ever. This is a very easy to access class of drugs and that is certainly in part why this problem is growing.

Benzodiazepines, like Xanax, Valium, and Klonopin are ingested by the user. While properly used as a treatment for panic disorders, insomnia, general anxiety, and seizures, they are also taken recreationally for their sedative effects. When used recreationally, such drugs can quickly become addictive - and over the long-term, the symptoms these drugs are meant to treat, like depression and anxiety, can form as a result of dependency.

So it is for good reason that the Benzodiazepines Drug Test was developed. The term benzodiazepines is less well known - so for some, calling it a Xanax Drug Test is a better description. In any case this home drug test covers Valium, Xanax, Ativan, Diazepam, and Klonopin, to name a few. These are drugs that can be found in urine up to 3 to 7 days after they are taken. The detection level, 300 ng/mL, is powerful enough to determine, for example, not only if such drugs are being abused, but if they are being taken as prescribed. It is thus a useful tool for determining not only the abuse of drugs, but the proper use.

So if you think you are looking for a Xanax Drug Test, or a Valium Drug Test, be sure to know that they are both benzodiazepines and can be detected by any test that detects benzodiazepines. Home Health Testing has 4 varieties of benzodiazepines tests available. Find out which one will suit your needs by visiting Home Health Testing today.

Flashback - to the Origins of Drug Testing in Sports

Nowadays, you are probably used to the prevalence of drug testing - it is used by parents, by coaches, by schools, by law enforcement, by employers...the list goes on. Of course it was not always this way. For example, did you know that Olympic drug testing first debuted in 1968?

Interestingly enough, the first athlete to be disqualified based on a drug test, Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, was disqualified for alcohol consumption before the race. He earned this dubious honor at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. I suppose the fellow could've used an alcohol test, no?

Since the 1968 Olympics, drug testing has certainly grown in the athletic world. The NCAA, for example, has since 1986 tested for illegal drugs and performance-enhancing drugs. Testing positive in the NCAA results in the athlete losing a year of eligibility.

Having to undergo a drug test is no new experience for high school athletes either. Illinois recently passed a law that states that any high school athlete in the state can be tested randomly during sports season.

An interesting debate in sports testing is whether or not to include drugs like marijuana in testing efforts. Perhaps owing to the fact that marijuana is legal in some of the countries competing in the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee does not impose sanctions on athletes that might test positive for marijuana. The NCAA, however, does. Some of the arguments center around whether a marijuana drug test is necessary to determine whether a sports competion will be fair. Gary Green, who has long been involved in NCAA testing, says "There's a big debate about whether marijuana should be on the (banned-drugs) list...it's definitely not a performance enhancer." He points to drugs like methamphetamines and cocaine as stimulants that may affect an athlete's performance.

You don't have to wait for random sports testing to test yourself or your athlete for drugs though. A home drug test is a very affordable way of testing for illegal drugs and will arrive at your house in just a few days. You can find a wide variety of drug tests at Home Health Testing.

The Expansion of Drug Tests - Law Enforcement

Americans are quite used to the use of breathalyzers and alcohol testing by our police officers around the country. But did you know that law enforcement officers are increasingly considering using drug testing in the same way?

For example, Lord Adonis, British Secretary of State in the Department for Transport, recently appeared on the radio to discuss the British government’s interest in changing the law so that police officers in the UK can use a saliva drug test to determine whether a driver is impaired on illegal drugs. (Read the article at UK magazine The Engineer’s website). The law currently provides only for observation based tests.

The reason a saliva drug test would be such a great tool for law enforcement officers is that it picks up very recent drug use. Unlike a urine drug test, this test picks up some drugs as recently as 5-10 minutes after their use, and detects marijuana within an hour of use. Results come from a saliva drug test within 5 minutes. They are a tool that officers in Australia have found particularly useful.

A saliva drug test is the best drug test on the market if you would like to know about very recent drug use, or find out if someone is currently high. And it’s not just the police that can use these tests. They are available to consumers. You can purchase one here at http://www.homehealthtesting.com/saliva-c-21_28.html.

How A Hair Drug Test Works - And Who Uses Them

A hair drug test is a type of test that is not only accurate, but comprehensive: aside from testing up to 7 different types of drugs at once (marijuana, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, methamphetamines, ecstasy and PCP) it provides an up to 90 day history of drug use, dating from the time of the hair collection. A variety of businesses and organizations use hair drug testing in their employment screening process - among them Kraft Foods, Anheuser Busch, the federal government and police departments around the country (see this MSNBC article for more information). Parents also use hair drug tests as part of their efforts to keep their kids drug-free.

A hair drug test works so well at establishing a lengthy drug history because of the way drugs are ingested and work through the body. Drugs of course enter the bloodstream when used - and the blood nourishes hair follicles as they grow. The drug will show up in the hair within a week after it has been used. The industry standard is to provide at least a half inch of hair to get results - less than that will not be accepted by a lab. This half inch of hair will give you a 30 day drug history. The three hair drug tests provided by Home Health Testing (here, here and here) will show you up to, but no more, than 90 days of drug use history.

Drug testing has grown increasingly common in our world, and hair drug testing in particular. The hair drug test has grown in particular because of what it offers to the market - a long window of detection, the convenience of the collection, and the accuracy of the test's accuracy. These tests are available for purchase at Home Health Testing's website http://www.homehealthtesting.com/hair-c-21_29.html.

Drug Tests Available for Parents

Recently communities have begun embracing home drug testing as a way of mediating conflicts and confronting drug use, especially in the home. In West Virginia, for example, Sheriff Vince Shambaugh has used money collected from drug dealers to purchase home drug tests, available for free pick up at his office. The tests range from a saliva drug test to a urine drug test. To read more about the Sheriff's initiative please visit WTAP's site here. You can also buy saliva and urine drug tests at Home Health Testing by checking out the Home Drug Test category page http://www.homehealthtesting.com/drug-tests-c-21.html.

Schools have begun providing a similar service to parents. Instead of having your child tested at a school, you can pick up a home drug test and test them privately and in less embarrassing circumstances. This is the approach the United Independent School District has taken in Laredo, TX, where at home drug tests can be picked up free of charge by parents. You can learn more about their program here at the Laredo Morning Times page.

If you wish to follow the example of these organizations, you can purchase affordable and confidential home drug tests from Home Health Testing. Aside from saliva and urine drug tests you can also buy from Home Health Testing a hair drug test with lab services and the power to determine a 90 day drug history. For more information please check out the variety of drug tests available at Home Health Testing.com http://www.homehealthtesting.com.