Cocaine is a substance that is routinely screened for in drug tests, especially employment related drug testing. Different ways of detecting cocaine use are through urine testing, hair testing, saliva fluid testing, and blood testing. 

 

On-site or at-home instant drug testing is becoming more popular as a more cost-efficient method of effectively detecting drug abuse amongst employees, loved ones, as well as in rehabilitation programs to monitor patient progress. These instant tests can be used for both urine and saliva testing. Although the accuracy of such tests varies with the manufacturer, some kits boast extremely high rates of accuracy, correlating closely with laboratory test results. These on-site drug-tests can be purchased online and at most pharmacies.

 

Cocaine will show up in the user's urine for around 2 to 4 days after use, for occasional users. For more frequent users, the drug can stay in the body longer. Certain antibiotics such as Amoxicillin can trigger a false positive reading on a drug test. When urine is being screened for the presence of cocaine, it is actually benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, that is being measured. 

 

Urine drug test kits are available as on-site tests, or laboratory analysis. Urinalysis is the most common test type and used by federally mandated drug testing programs, yet likely the least effective.

 

The main disadvantages of urine-based drug test kits are (1.) the ease at which they can be "cheated" via simple adulteration or substitution, unless specimen collection is directly observed, (2.) inability to detect current / on-the-job drug abuse, (3.) the need for bathroom facilities, and (4.) with respect to SAMHSA-5, or NIDA-5, the inability to test for drugs commonly abused/mis-used in current society.

 

Saliva (oral) drug test kits are very donor friendly, non-invasive and easy to collect the specimen. There is no need for a bathroom to administer the tests. Saliva drug testing tends to detect recent drug use. Also these drug tests are harder to adulterate than the urine drug tests since the sample can be obtained under direct supervision. Depending on the test, up to 8 different drugs could be detected. This method is the best method for determining recent use and is a potential indicator of impairment.

 

A disadvantage of saliva based drug testing is that it is not approved by SAMHSA for use with DOT / Federal Mandated Drug Testing. Oral fluid is not considered a bio-hazard unless there is visible blood, however, it should be treated with care.

 

Hair drug testing can provide a much longer window of detection, which is useful for highly safety-critical positions where there is zero tolerance of drug usage.[16] Even if the person being tested has a shaved head (perhaps in preparation for the test), hair can also be taken from almost any other area of the body. This includes facial hair, the underarms, arms, and legs.

 

Though it is often claimed that hair test cannot be tampered with, it has been shown that this is simply untrue. For example, THC does not readily deposit inside epithelial cells so it is possible for cosmetic and other forms of adulteration to reduce the amount of testable canaboids within a hair sample