The issue of substance abuse has always been a concern in many ways. Until recently, drinking alcohol was not generally considered to be a social disease, unless a person had extreme problems with it. Regular consumption of alcohol was acceptable in most social circles, and in fact still is. The risks of drinking to a person’s physical and mental health are just now being accepted and discussed.

Drug use, on the other hand, has been considered risky behavior in most cultures throughout history. Although some drug use has been acceptable for certain cultures as part of religious or spiritual rituals, the problem of drug addiction goes back many centuries to the opium dens in China and other parts of Asia as well as cocaine and heroin addiction in the West, dating as far back as the 18th and 19th century.

Today, the problem of substance abuse is attracting more attention not only from law enforcement and legislators, but especially from employers, schools, and parents who are concerned about the increases being reported in drug and alcohol use. New standards are being mandated in the workplace and in homes and schools to address this problem and to regulate it.

While the standard practice of businesses and other institutions is to collect the samples and then send them to a laboratory for testing, this may not often be feasible to the individual person for economic reasons as well as a lack of time that is required to wait for results from a testing facility. That is why many people are turning to the home drug test as a viable solution.

The advantages of a home drug test are many, especially when it is used as a deterrent in a drug-free program that has been adopted to safeguard a child or to encourage someone to maintain a healthier lifestyle. Random drug testing in such an environment can reap rewarding benefits by instilling hesitancy in the subject of the program to indulge in drug use.

Although the results of a home drug test do not carry the extent of accuracy that laboratory tests can guarantee, the level of detection of drugs and other known controlled substances in a person’s system is substantial enough to signal the verified presence of these substances. This in itself is reason enough to include a home drug test in any prevention program.

Another benefit in using a home drug test is their inherent ease of use and the sterile application process. Since the tests use saliva, urine, and hair follicle samples for testing the tests are considered safe and non-invasive. All that is required is a relatively small amount of the sample and about five minutes to wait for the results. Many urine tests are self-sealing and therefore sanitary, and a personal protection kit which includes a pair of sterilized gloves and a sample container, can be obtained to administer the test.

As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and it is this attitude, combined with the regular use of a home drug test, which can ensure a successful drug prevention program.