The real world of urine drug testing

The testing of urine samples for the presence of substances of abuse and/or their metabolites has developed into a major scientific and economic effort over the past few decades. This process, facilitated by standard procedures adopted by federal government regulations such as the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT), involves a combination of scientific procedures and legal constraints. This paper presents a brief overview of the steps involved and some of the complexities that must be considered.