Drug addiction is the chronic brain disease rather than a moral issue. Drug addiction is similar to that of other chronic disease such as diabetes, asthma, kidney failure and hypertension. Drug addiction alters the activity of the brain and brings about the changes that last forever. Hence drug addiction is called as chronic brain disease. Brain consists of network of nerves where it provides signals for each and every action produced by the body. The main parts of brain affected by the drug addiction are the cortex, limbic region and hippocampus. The resulting distorted brain insists to do illegal things and get addicted to the drug. (more…)

PCP or phencyclidine which was earlier used as an anesthetic agent has now been replaced by newer drugs. But it still rules the cartel mechanism as it has potent stimulatory and hallucinogenic properties. It is used for the purpose of recreation especially in parties, etc. One of the characteristic effects which it produces is disassociation. By this effect, the person seems to lose contact with his body and the whole surroundings by blocking the action of glutamate on its receptor. (more…)

Medications are not at risk until they are used legally. Sometimes the prescribed medications are misused so that the patient becomes addicted to that drug developing a high risk to the health. Particularly women become addicted to the prescribed medication more quickly. The mostly misused prescribed medications are Opoids, central nervous system depressants and stimulants. These types of medications are prescribed for the pain relief, anxiety and for obesity and sleeping disorder respectively. However in USA the addiction to prescribed drug is uncommon. (more…)

Morphine is natural opium which occurs as white crystals or white powder and has bitter taste and alkaline reactions. When orally ingested, it is well absorbed by the intestines and this first pass metabolism is bypassed if morphine is injected and the time interval between the intake of drug and the appearance of drug in blood is very minimal. Still urine remains to be the most effective specimen for the testing the presence of morphine in the body. But it can also be recovered from blood and bile. (more…)

Of all the forms of addiction, the worst is smoking. It affects people both on the active and passive smoking and is the major etiological agent for a large number of cancers and also has an unbreakable relationship with the lung pathologies. (more…)

Codeine is natural opium obtained from poppy seeds. It is mainly used therapeutically in cough medications by virtue of its property of depressing all centers except oculomotor, vomiting and sweating. It is a peripherally acting analgesic. It stimulates the propulsive activity of the intestine. One important indication for abuse for codeine is that it acts synergistically with alcohol and barbiturates. (more…)

Coke, snow, Cadillac, white lady- these are the various terminologies that are being used to mention cocaine. It is a potent local anesthetic which desensitizes the terminal nerves as well as produces vasoconstriction. Another important form of cocaine is the crack which is prepared by combining cocaine with baking soda and water. Crack is more suitable for smoking. (more…)

The main organization that takes care of the mental health and checks drug abuse is the SAMHSA or Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. It is an agency of the federal government that takes care of mental health, prevents substance abuse and treats the person who wants to get De-addiction treatment. It mainly serves to rehabilitate the people who have mental disorders and who are addicted to drugs. It helps in providing medical, social, vocational and emotional guidance to the people who come with the problem of addiction.

The main centers and offices of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration are center for mental health services, center for substance abuse prevention, center for substance abuse treatment and the office of applied studies. It also conducts surveys and collects statistics on substance abuse and its prevention. It usually conducts a cohort study to find out the efficacy of its interventions and its outcomes. They also get grant for their research activities.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has a specific set of programs and modules tailored for specific age groups. They have comprehensive health programs for the mental health consumers to help them stop smoking, get out of addiction, beat stress, and improve nutrition. For health care providers, they provide them the guidelines to improvise the skills and knowledge to treat mental health consumers. They also pioneer the work in the field of suicide prevention by doing PSA campaigns.

When you are trying to get drug testing kits like those for benzodiazepine screening, alprazolam test, benzo testing, clonazepam drug test you have to make sure that they are from a online drug testing company who are selling strips that are compliant with the requirements of SAMHSA and FDA. Most of those tests that are meant for a court hearing should be FDA-approved and they are the most reliable ones indeed.

Suggested Reading:
DOT Testing To Be In Accordance With SAMHSA
SAMHSA – Mental Health And Drug Abuse
National Institute Of Drug Abuse – Battling Drug Addiction
Domestic Violence Of Women And Drug Abuse – Positive Drug Testing
Lab Drug Test
Why should drug testing be made regular?

One of the most common features of drug abuse is the lack of concentration. This lack of concentration is associated with a lot of work place of accidents. This type of work place accidents tend to cost the company in terms of health and accident coverage for insurance. Post-incident drug testing is based on this fact.

This is done in places where any work place accident has occurred. The main purpose of this drug testing is not to expel the person but to cut the costs of insurance if the person met with accident due to hang over or when under the influence of drugs of abuse.

Say for instance, you are informed that one of your employees while working at the construction site met with some accident. When you go there and do a drug testing using the person’s sample and it shows positive for alcohol, then you can strongly prove the point that the accident occurred due to the personal habit of that person and you need not pay the medical cover from your company.

One important fact to be noted is that you can prove it from your side only if the drug is found in either blood or saliva. These are the body secretions that indicate recent drug use. Whereas the other formats of drug testing detect past drug use too which makes it non feasible to use them. You should remember that you have to do a confirmatory testing of the samples again in some registered laboratory.

Ten panel drug screen, twelve panel drug test, five panel drug screen test, 30 alcohol drug testing are some of the methods of testing that are basically considered for use in the preliminary testing of the samples. In serious cases blood testing or saliva preliminaries are done if they are not able to get urine sample from the donor.

Related Links:
drug testing in the workplace
employment drug testing
breathalyzer

Suggested Reading:
Goodness of a drug free work place
Drug testing for employee
Pre employment drug testing – Urine Drug Testing
Effects Of Drugs In The Work Place
Harms Of Hiring Drug Addicts In Work Place
How Drug Addiction Affects Work – Work Place Drug Testing

Drug addiction is a chronic, often relapsing brain disease caused by compulsive drug consummation. This addiction might be due to the use of prescription drugs or the likes of cocaine and heroin. With time, the brain’s chemistry is altered to such an extent that not having the drug could cause very unpleasant sensations in the body to the extent of pain. Finally, this compelling urge to use a drug reaches a level where it disrupts work, relationship and health. (more…)