Hair Follicle Drug Testing

A Colorado woman who was ordered to submit to a hair follicle drug test is claiming that the lab tech who performed the collection botched the job and butchered her hair, leaving her with a bald spot. The woman, Jenn Christiansen, says she is an admitted marijuana user and was ordered by the courts to … Read more

A leading hair follicle drug test lab, Quest Diagnostics, recently announced that it is investigating an unauthorized intrusion (aka hacking) that has exposed the personal details of approximately 34,000 individuals. According to the company, the hack took place on November 26th of this year using their online software. The company says that it believes that … Read more

While many had hoped that President Obama would push for legalizing marijuana or at least making some substantive changes to US drug laws during his presidency, that does not seem to have happened which means many are left to wonder what a Trump presidency will mean for marijuana users. It’s easy to imagine the worst … Read more

In what will hopefully become a trend, the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled that six police officers who had previously been terminated due to failing a hair follicle drug test be reinstated as a positive drug test alone was not adequate proof of drug use. The court felt that the risk of a false positive was … Read more

Recently an appeals court in Massachusetts ordered that six black police officers be reinstated to duty after having tested positive in a hair follicle drug test. In addition to finding reason to believe that the test itself was too prone to false positives, the court also noted that the test may be racially biased. As … Read more

Recently High Times magazine published an article exposing myths about drug testing.  However, they rehash a thoroughly debunked myth in doing so. For Myth #4 All Drug Tests Are Urine Tests they state: If you shave your head before a hair follicle drug test they will simply collect hair from another part of your body. … Read more

We’ve long held that hair drug testing for marijuana was an inaccurate science at best.  Study after study has shown that the absorption rate of THC metabolites into hair follicles is an unreliable method of determining drug usage. Now there’s some science to back that up. Researchers at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Freiburg, Germany, … Read more

With millions of hair follicle drug tests administered every year, police and unions are beginning to ask whether hair follicle drug testing is racially biased. It’s not a new charge directed at the drug testing industry.  In fact, from the very beginning many people questioned whether people with more melanin in their hair would test positive … Read more

Have you ever wondered what the rationale was behind the need to take a hair follicle drug test?  It would be nice if you were required to take a hair follicle test because your job involved public safety like in the case of an airline pilot or if drugs impaired your ability to perform certain … Read more