What Is It?

Marijuana is a mixture of the dried and shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the hemp plant. The mixture can be green, brown, or gray. Hemp’s scientific name is Cannabis sativa.

A bunch of leaves seems harmless, right? But think again. Marijuana has a chemical in it called tetrahydrocannabinol. Better known as THC. A lot of other chemicals are found in marijuana too-about 400 of them, some of which can cause lung cancer. But THC is the main active ingredient. [1]

What Are the Common Street Names?

There are more than 200 slang terms for marijuana from city to city and from neighborhood to neighborhood. Some common names are: pot, grass, herb, weed, Mary Jane, reefer, skunk, boom, gangster, kif, chronic, and ganja. [2]

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Detection periods

The following chart gives approximate detection periods for each substance by test type.^[1] The ranges depend on amount and frequency of use, metabolic rate, body mass, age, overall health, and urine pH. For ease of use, the detection times ofmetabolites have been incorporated into each parent drug. For example, heroin and cocaine can only be detected for a few hours after use, but their metabolites can be detected for several days in urine. In this type of situation, we will report the (longer) detection times of the metabolites.

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What Is It?

Ecstasy is a slang term for an illegal drug that has effects similar to those of hallucinogens and stimulants. Ecstasy’s scientific name is “MDMA,” short for 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, a name that’s nearly as long as the all-night dance club “raves” or “trances” where ecstasy is often used. That’s why MDMA is called a “club drug.”

MDMA is synthetic-it doesn’t come from a plant like marijuana does. MDMA users often make the drug in secret “labs”-in trailers, basements, and even kitchens-hidden around the country. Other chemicals or substances are often added to, or substituted for, MDMA in ecstasy tablets, such as caffeine, dextromethorphan (in some cough syrups), amphetamines, or cocaine. Makers of ecstasy can add anything they want to the drug. So the purity of ecstasy is always in question. [1]

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What is drug testing?

Some schools, hospitals, or places of employment conduct drug testing. There are a number of ways this can be done, including: pre-employment testing, random testing, reasonable suspicion/cause testing, post-accident testing, return to duty testing, and follow-up testing. This usually involves collecting urine samples to test for drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, PCP, and opiates.

Following models established in the workplace, some schools have initiated random drug testing and/or reasonable suspicion/cause testing. During random testing schools select, using a random process (like flipping a coin), one or more individuals from the student population to undergo drug testing. Currently, random drug testing can only be conducted among students who participate in competitive extracurricular activities. Reasonable suspicion/cause testing involves a school requiring a student to provide a urine specimen when there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the student may have used an illicit substance. Typically, this involves the direct observations made by school officials that a student has used or possesses illicit substances, exhibits physical symptoms of being under the influence, and has patterns of abnormal or erratic behavior.

Why do some schools want to conduct random drug tests?

Schools that have adopted random student drug testing are hoping to decrease drug abuse among students via two routes. First, schools that conduct testing hope that random testing will serve as a deterrent, and give students a reason to resist peer pressure to take drugs. Secondly, drug testing can identify adolescents who have started using drugs so that interventions can occur early, or identify adolescents who already have drug problems, so they can be referred for treatment. Drug abuse not only interferes with a student’s ability to learn, but it can also disrupt the teaching environment, affecting other students as well.

Is student drug testing a stand-alone solution, or do schools need other programs to prevent and reduce drug use?

Drug testing should never be undertaken as a stand-alone response to a drug problem. If testing is done, it should be a component of broader prevention, intervention and treatment programs, with the common goal of reducing students’ drug use.

If a student tests positive for drugs, should that student face disciplinary consequences?

The primary purpose of drug testing is not to punish students who use drugs but to prevent drug abuse and to help students already using become drug-free. The results of a positive drug test should be used to intervene with students who do not yet have drug problems, through counseling and follow-up testing. For students that are diagnosed with addiction, parents and a school administrator can refer them to effective drug treatment programs, to begin the recovery process.

Why test teenagers at all?

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Addiction experts say home drug test have a big drawback: They destroy child-parent trust 

The Boulder mother had been down this road with one child and swore she would never make a return trip. When she became suspicious her younger son was trying drugs, she went to Walgreens, plunked down $38 for a home drug test kit and told him to pee in a cup.

The high school junior was furious. And busted.

“Don’t you trust me?” he wailed.

His mother would not budge.

Finally, reluctantly, the 16-year-old, whose name is not being used to protect his privacy, confessed: The reason he didn’t want to take the test was that it would be positive.

His mother thanked him for his honesty and gave him 30 days to clean up his act. There would be another test when he least expected. A month later, she sent him back to the bathroom, home drug test cup in hand. He passed.

In the year since, she hasn’t tested him again. But that doesn’t mean she won’t. She keeps a test in the house, just in case.

What makes this mother’s private act of parental vigilance so extraordinary is not that she and tens of thousands of other parents have bought into the multimillion-dollar home drug test industry.

It’s that parents do so despite warnings from most major drug-abuse and treatment professionals, the nation’s medical establishment, parenting experts and even the White House. All call home drug testing teens a bad idea.

“I guess home drug testing is better than no testing,” said a skeptical Bertha Madras, the White House’s deputy drug czar.

But her Office of National Drug Control Policy does not encourage parents to take matters into their own hands. Instead, the Bush administration backs random school drug testing, arguing schools are better equipped to help with counseling and referrals if a problem is found.

“By the time a parent tests, it’s already far down the road,” Madras said. “If they get a positive result, then what? Parents may or may not have the skill to proceed.” 

Test accuracy a concern

In March, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement opposing both home drug testing and involuntary drug testing in schools. The medical group prefers worried parents have their children tested by qualified doctors or treatment specialists because of the possibility of error or tampering.

“It’s deceptively simple, but the truth is, it’s actually a very complicated issue,” said Dr. Sharon Levy, who specializes in childhood addiction at Children’s Hospital Boston.

Levy has studied the meteoric rise of home drug testing since the federal Food and Drug Administration first approved the kits in 1997. She worries not only about inaccuracy but also about eroding trust during a time when many teens are already pulling away.

Most tests use a litmus strip to detect traces of drugs or byproducts in urine. Others check hair samples or saliva. As many as 12 illicit and prescription drugs can be detected.

Still, experts worry the home tests are not sophisticated enough to catch low levels or every drug being used.

“Parents are motivated by the best of intentions,” Levy said. “They are told by marketers this is a good thing to do. But drug testing is basically a threat. And while it might have some short-term behavioral changes, I don’t think it’s a good long- term prevention method.”

Abuse by teens of prescription drugs, such as Vicodin and OxyContin, remains a problem. However, the most recent survey of 50,000 eighth-, 10th-, and 12th-graders by Monitoring the Future shows the use of illicit drugs, such as marijuana, actually is decreasing. Monitoring the Future, a study by University of Michigan researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health, has tracked drug use among adolescents since 1975.

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