The term ‘drug test’ is likely to send chills down the spines of many people especially when it’s associated with punishment and negative repercussions. However, these tests are at times necessary to establish soberness and productivity of individuals both at the workplace and at home.

At home, drug tests are done mainly to teenagers suspected to be under the influence of drugs especially as a result of a sudden behavioral change.  At the workplace, the drug tests are carried out to ensure high productivity, concentration and reduced chances of accidents among employees and this cover different field including sports.

The accuracy and the relevance of the results from a particular drug test depend on a particular end the parent or the management want to achieve. This is aided by the choice of correct drug test kits. Below are some of the factors you ought to consider in choosing the right test kits.

The type of drugs being tested for

Different types of drugs require different test kits to detect them. For instance, a hair follicle drug test kit might be appropriate to test for cannabis but it can never detect alcohol in the body system. This is because different drugs have a different residence time in the body.

Furthermore, different substrates used as reagents in the test kits react differently with different drugs. It is therefore wise to choose a test kit which you be sure that it will produce the particular results you are testing for.

Price

There has always been a debate regarding price versus quality. Conventionally, items that are expensive are assumed to be of high quality and the cheap ones are seen to be less effective. Well, this could be true for most but not all products. If you are in a position to afford the sophisticated test kits, you can be assured of better results.

However, there are other factors that affect prices like market entry and competition. This could lead to low prices of high-quality test kits which could produce the same results as the expensive ones. The price might be an indicator of quality but at the same time, it is good to research that particular test kit before buying it.

Levels of accuracy required

Level of accuracy differs depending on where the drug test is to be administered. For an organization, it is recommended to choose sophisticated and computerized test kits for accurate results. This is because the results are used to make crucial decisions like hiring, firing or compensating employees.

For home-use purposes where the parents want to have an idea of what drug the kid is using, local test kits can be administered. However, it is good to test for more than one sample using the same test kit to ensure low results disparity.

Time period tested for

Different test kits for different drugs detect different timeframes for the drugs under evaluation. For instance, a hair follicle drug test can give results dated back to 90 days, where the results provide drug-use history e.g. for heroin, marijuana, and cocaine.

If only the current use or current cause of an impairment is needed, then blood, saliva, and breath tests can be chosen. Alcohol current-use can easily be detected by administration of a breath test. Employers are however mainly interested in curbing drug-use whilst at the workplace.

Reviews

Most drug test kits have reviews from customers who have already used them. This can form a basis for your choice of a test kit to administer either at your workplace or at home. The reviews can easily be accessed online or from journals related to the test kits.

It is also important to note the date of the reviews so that you can discern whether the technology is outdated or not.

Level of tolerance to the samples

This depends on the person who is administering the drug test. In simple terms, are you okay when handling different specimens? Some people are okay with the blood specimen but are disgusted by urine samples. Others are okay with urine specimen but disgusted by the saliva specimen.

At this point, the test administrator ought to choose a test kit which requires a specimen that he/she is comfortable working with.

It doesn’t matter how sophisticated or expensive your test kit for the drug is. Appropriateness of the kit to the drug test at hand is what matters!