Military Drug Test

Military Drug Test:
Military drug test involves different sensitive tests to determine the presence of drugs in army personnel. Active duty members of the army, navy as well as air force have to undergo military drug test annually.

The test is conducted on urine samples and the military laboratory has several inbuilt intelligence and protection system to give accurate results. In military drug test, individuals cannot contaminate the sample bottles, as there is a strict vigil.

Procedure of a Military Drug Test:
The sample bottles after arriving in the laboratory have to undergo immunoassay screening. Officials carry out screening using Olympus AU-800 equipment, which is an Automated Chemistry Analyzer. If individuals test positive in the drug test, they have to undergo the screening process again.

Finally, individuals who come out positive in the screening test have to go through specific tests, which include gas chromatography, and mass spectrometry test. The reason is at times, when individuals are on medication they might test positive and their results may show the presence of drug components, which they might have taken as medicines. The specific tests confirm this possibility and help to find out whether individuals had consumed drugs or not.

If an individual’s report shows the presence of drug substance below the threshold level, the outcome of a military drug test is negative. Military laboratories are well equipped to trace all-major drugs, such as marijuana, amphetamines, ecstasy, LSD, PCP, barbiturates, cocaine, and opiates (along with heroin as well as morphine).

Lab officials also carry out military drug test to detect other drugs other than the mentioned ones. These are random military drug tests, but authorities may carry out specific military drug test for each kind of drug. These drugs include anabolic steroids, ethanol, hallucinogens, inhalants and other banned substances.

Cut-Off Levels Of Drug Test:
Cut-off levels of drug test is the minimum concentration or levels of drugs, which need to be present in the sample, before the military lab reports a military drug test outcome as positive. If the presence of drug level is equal to the confirmatory level or below that, the outcome of the test is negative.

In case of marijuana, the cut-off levels are 50 NG/ML (nano grams/milliliter), while confirmation level is 15NG/ML. For cocaine, it is 2000 NG/ML and 4000 NG/ML. For opiates such as Morphine, the cut-off level includes 2000 NG/ML and confirmation level is 4000 NG/ML, while for Codeine it is 2000 NG/ML and 2000 NG/ML.

In case of heroin, the cut-off level is 300 NG/ML and confirmatory level is 10 NG/ML. for amphetamine it is 500 NG/ML and 500 NG/ML. for methamphetamine it is 500 NG/ML and 500 NG/ML. For barbiturates, the cut-off level is 200 NG/ML and confirmatory level is 200 NG/ML.

Military drug test detects the presence of marijuana in the body, if you consumed it one to three weeks before the test. In same way, if you consumed cocaine two or four days before the test, the military drug test can detect it easily.