The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration(SAMHSA), after conducting many surveys and researches released the list of five most popularly abused drugs. The list gives the detailed information of all the drugs and its metabolites which enables the users to check for those drugs since they are found to be popularly used. Many companies have already designed five panel drug test strips and cups which can effectively detect the five drugs referred by SAMHSA.
Moving forward will let you know the cutoff levels of SAMHSA five drugs.
- Cannabinoids which are popularly called as marijuana is the most commonly abused drug in United States. It is administered in two ways – oral and smoked. Immunoassay test is used to screen specimens for marijuana. The initial screening cutoff level is 50 ng/ml and 15ng/ml for lab confirmation.
- Cocaine is the next highly abused drug. Cocaine and its primary metabolite are generally detected by a variety of laboratory techniques. The route of administration is either by injecting, smoking or sniffing. The initial screening cutoff level for cocaine and its metabolite is 300 ng/ml and 150 ng/ml for lab tests.
- Amphetamine is a stimulant which can be detected using immunoassay test. They can be detected till 12 hours in blood, 3days in saliva, 1-4 days in urine, and up to 90 days in hair.
- The screening cutoff of 1000 ng/ml and lab cutoff is 500 ng/ml.
- Opiates are very old drugs which are derived from opium poppy. Immunoassay is used for primary detection. It is detected up to 2-4 days in urine and up to 90 days in hair. The initial screen is 2000ng/ml and lab test limit is 2000 ng/ml.
- Phencyclidine or PCP is cheap but popularly used drug in US. The immunoassay technique used to detect PCP in urine has a cutoff level of 25 ng/ml and is the same for the lab test.
These are the cut-off levels of SAMHSA 5 drugs and purchasing those kits designed using these cut-off levels helps to get accurate results and hence are more reliable.
