Given the wide range of drugs and substance abuse prevalent in today’s world, a reliable drug test comes handy for law enforcement agencies, employers and organizations. A 10-panel drug test is one such procedure used to determine the presence of drugs in an individual’s body as well as figure out what drug is exactly present. Can you find out any drug in the system through this method? As the name indicates, it checks for 10 drug varieties and other drugs closely associated with these varieties, which is a step-up from the previously used 4-panel drug test.
Basically, a 10-panel drug test uses urine as the source for checking the presence of potential legal and illegal drugs. As mentioned earlier, it would be nearly impossible to check for all the drugs except the few ten that the person has abused prior to driving, seeking employment or being involved in a criminal offense. However, in some cases, the result may show false positive where the test detects the drug even when the individual is drug-free.
Since the administering of 10 panel drug tests is as simple and straightforward as it comes, many places use this as a standard procedure for vetting the person in question. Some employers are still stuck to the use 4 or 5 panel drug test to detect or eliminate the presence of alcohol in a potential employee.
What Will I Learn?
What Exactly is a 10-panel Drug Test?
As the name indicates, the test uses the individual’s urine sample to check for drug residues. It looks for the 10 most commonly used drugs that the individual may be abusing. These drugs include five popular prescription medications as well as five illegal street drugs. It is known that urine can be used to detect drugs easily compared to other test forms like saliva test. And urine test is simple to perform compared to more sophisticated blood or hair test. For this and many other reasons, urine test is considered to be accurate and apt for drug testing. Although, they are beatable with the use of synthetic urines.
What Drugs Can Be Detected?
The 10 panel drug tests can be used to find the following drugs to name a few.
1) Marijuana – All type of marijuana and its resins can be detected with a 10-panel drug test. Other drugs like hashish, THC oil, glass and wax can also be uncovered through this method.
*How to Pass a Marijuana Drug Test – this is one of our most read pages.
2) Cocaine – Crack cocaine, freebase and other drugs containing cocaine can be detected using a 10-panel drug test.
3) Opioids – Morphine, codeine, smoked opium, oxycodone, hydrocode and heroin are some of the prescription and illegal drugs whose presence can be detected with a simple 10-panel drug test.
4) Benzos – Some of the most common drugs that this test can detect easily include but not limited to Valim, Xanax and Ativan, which are all collectively called benzos or benzodiazepines. These are prescription medications that the doctors may have prescribed for certain illnesses like anxiety, pain or mood disorder. However, there are possibilities of the patient abusing these drugs which have the same side effects or consequences as those of illegal drugs.
5) Amphetamines – Another category of drugs that the test can detect is amphetamines. This include meth, speed and ADHD medications such as Adderall and Ritalin.
6) Barbiturates – Barbiturates may be picked up by a 10-panel drug test. Some of the drugs belonging to this group are phenobarbitol, secobarbital and amobarbital.
Drug Screening, Detection Time And Results
A 10-panel drug test is used for screening individual drugs as well. Methodone, Methaqualone and propoxyphene screening are being done successfully using this test. Detection time for any drug means the amount of time it usually takes for the body to eliminate the drug and its byproducts. This time varies from one drug to another. The detection time may also vary depending on the amount of drug the person has used or abused as well as his or her metabolism rate. Unfortunately, the test will not determine whether or not the person is currently on drug. This is because urine contains only the byproducts of the drug and not the drug itself.
The Test Procedure In Detail
A 10-panel drug test kit can be found online and at retail stores and clinics. Although ordering online is cost-effective and convenient, most employers and organizations require that the candidates get the test done through a physical laboratory or doctor’s office. With online ordering and through a few stores, the test can be done at home and the kit sent to designated labs. However, this option may be tricky and subjected to errors and tampering.
Most test providers will work directly with the laboratory in analyzing the test results. Here, the company or the organization will require that the person take the test to check for random drugs by giving a 48-hours prior notice. During the prior 24-hours, the person is required to stay in empty stomach or avoid drinking excess water.
The environment where the test is conducted may vary from one provider to another. In case where urine samples are needed, the administrator may ask the individual to get the sample from a particular bathroom specially designed for drug testing. These bathrooms come with toilet water filled with dye or tap water switched off as a precaution for potential tampering. The individual is asked to collect the urine in a collection cup, mid stream and cover the container with a lid before handing it over to the test administrator.
The test administrator will then transfer the sample to the designated lab, in-house or outside the facility to test for the mentioned 10 different drugs. Once the sample is submitted, it may take anywhere between a week to two weeks for the results to come in.
Busting Some Drug Testing Facts & Myths
The results are then analyzed for the possibility of the presence of drugs. If the result is positive, it means the individual had detectable amount of a particular drug mentioned on the report in his or her system. That drug may be one or more combination of the drugs listed far above. A positive result in fact is an indication that the byproducts of the drugs were present in small, medium or large quantity as analyzed. This finding suggests that the person is certain to have used that drug recently.
The health service administration for substance abuse notes that all federal employees as well as those in the security fields are required to take more than one test, even when the outcome of the first test is positive. This is to weed out any false positives and to make sure that the individual is protected from disciplinary actions as a result of possible misdiagnosis.
When the test results show negative, it means the drug in question is either absent or present but not high enough to be detected. Drug testing facts & myths stories have it that the person is drug-free. The truth is, this result will not tell whether or not the person has used the drug previously or will use in the future. Sometimes, the test may show as inconclusive. This is due to a number of causes such as lab equipment malfunctioning, sample tampered with a foreign substance or simply that the test is unsuccessful. In all these cases, the laboratory may test the sample again or delegate the task to another agency. Note that a negative or inconclusive test should not be taken lightly especially when the individual is a subject of a criminal offense, DUI or other serious cases.
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