A common situation is that your client will say they've been in an environment that has exposed them to drugs, but they haven't taken any drugs. Can a hair drug test show this information?
A hair drug test will provide an accurate and historic description of what your clients past drug use has been. The hair drug test can go go back up to 12 months previous of when the client has been sampled. If your client claims that they have been in a passive environment where drugs have been consumed, DNA Legal can consider this in the expert witness report as the laboratory has a number of unique processes in place to pick this up.
What is passive exposure?
Firstly DNA Legal will wash the hair sample before examining it for drugs. Whilst other labs will wash the hair, most will not test the hair wash. DNA Legal test the hair wash as its paints an accurate picture of what environment the client has been in.
If the client has been in an environment where drugs have been taken, the hair wash alongside the hair drugs test will indicate this. Positive passive exposure could mean the following:
- Passive inhalation of drug smoke
- Contact with drug smoke
- Contact with sweat or sebum (skin oil) of user of drugs
- Physical contact of a drug substance
- Accidental or meaningful ingestion of drugs
The hair drugs test
The actual hair drug test will indicate if the client has be consuming drugs in the timeframe that has been stipulated. Our experts will be looking for metabolites in the clients hair, metabolites are produced when a drug metabolises after consumption and is deposited in the hair.
The body produces chemicals whilst the user is taking drugs, this chemical is then stored in the drug users hair. Each drug will produce a different variation of metabolite, therefore we can accurately determine which drug has been consumed. The presence of metabolites indicates that the client has been consuming drugs.
In conclusion DNA Legal can accurately measure if the client has been using drugs on a regular basis and if they have been in an environment where drugs have been used. For further information, please call 0203 4243 470. You can also request an online quote here.