Posted by chemist on August 20, 2005, at 5:10:42
In reply to drug testing for meth, posted by AMD on August 18, 2005, at 12:11:39
hello there, chemist here...as for expense, it depends on the service requested and what substances are being sought.i do not know the cost, as my tests have been paid for by all of my employers to this day when required by law or volunteered. and i always make sure that we leave no loose ends, and thus establish that there is likely not a continual pattern of abuse nor one of even the most miniscule amount.
you should step things up and request a GC/MS (tandem, electrospray) multi-step examination of a urine sample in addition to the hair/fingernail sample.
while accuracy (and thus limits on uncertainty or error in measurement) is reported in reference to an arbitrary standard - and thus the amount present is inferred by using blanks and by spiking samples with well-quantified amounts of the substance(s) being sought (and the lower limit of detection need not be an issue, although this presumes that the spike amounts are correct).
residence times for methamphetamine use range from days to weeks, and hair and fingernail clippings in general contain a longer historical record - up to 5 months - but absolute error increases with time.
you can then report that you are clean to the ppb range for a short time and to the sub-ppm to ppm range for a long time....
depends on the lab, the test requested, the drugs being sought, and so forth. fortunately, many drug testing laboratoies offer services for drug testing in the workplace, emplying mobile labs. as a rule, an office visit is requested to ensure that the results done away from the lab are in fact valid.
good luck and best wishes! all the best, chemist
> Folks,
>
> I'm obsessing over having possibly taken meth last week and not knowing it (blacking out from alcohol first). I am not sure if anything short of a drug testing will allay my fears. At this point, I suspect the only test I could take would be of a hair sample.
>
> Questions:
>
> a) How expensive is this?
>
> b) How /accurate/ is this?
>
> c) How long does one have to wait before it would return an accurate positive/negative result?
>
> Thanks,
>
> amd
poster:chemist
thread:543466
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