Screening for drugs of abuse (II): Cannabinoids, lysergic acid diethylamide, buprenorphine, methadone, barbiturates, benzodiazepines and other drugs.
Annals of clinical biochemistry September 1, 1997 D Simpson, R A Braithwaite, D R Jarvie et al. 38 citations
Drug screening in urine increasingly carries serious legal implications, such as in school testing, workplace testing, child custody cases, and probation compliance. Positive results from preliminary screening must be confirmed, but confirming unexpected negative results is equally important—missing a maintenance drug could lead to a patient's dismissal from a clinic or job. Laboratories face challenges including chain of custody, sample stability, and long-term storage for potential legal review. As designer drugs proliferate, labs must expand detection capabilities, and even GC-MS results require established spectral match criteria for legal acceptance. Confidence in testing, highlighted by the OJ Simpson trial, will face more frequent legal challenges.