Drug testing methods

Abstract

The challenge in drug testing is to have a reliable, reproducible, and economical test that can be used to make critical decisions about peoples' lives. The choice of which material to test is often a matter of which specimen is accessible and how people feel about how the sample is obtained. Testing methods depend on whether laboratory equipment is available and how well the methodology holds up to legal challenge. A concern expressed by some is that any test with less than 100% accuracy is likely to produce a high percentage of false positives (1). To date, there is no evidence that this is a valid concern with the testing procedures currently in place. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.