In this article I try to give explanations on what the test or examination of the hair means: how to avoid false steps, to defend yourself from any excesses or unjustified interpretations.
What is the hair test for and when is it required? The test is
required to identify certain substances (cannabis, cocaine, other drugs or drugs usually) for legal purposes. The hair in the drug test is preferred to other biological liquids because it retains long-term traces of exposure to these substances , as if it were a recorder of the passage of these substances from the blood (therefore exposure from the inside, after having taken them in various ways – nose , lungs, injection, transcutaneous absorption, etc.).
What length is useful
When requesting a sample, it should be specified what length in this case, to allow the person to prepare for the sample without making mistakes.
Some people, in order to eliminate as much traces as possible and in an attempt to circumvent the hair test, present themselves shaved or cut their hair and then present themselves with a little regrown hair, just enough to be “acceptable” and pickable. But this can be a misstep .
If a person appears in practice “shaved” and as if saying that his pee does not escape when he is asked to leave a urine sample: the examination is “null” and therefore, if the evaluator were to be severe (without be unfair), a positivity should be assumed because the person has altered the conditions of a toxicology test or refused to hand over the sample for testing.
Ditto, if in the request you specify a length and the required period, a freshly cut hair is unsuitable.
For further information: Examination of the hair: when it grows clean of substances
For example: a person is called to account for the use of a drug in the period around a road accident or for any punishable act, in order to know essentially whether he was using it at that time, without being able to specify whether at that time. occasion, but in general at that time. If the person, knowing that he will have to show up after a certain time for this purpose, first cuts his hair, thus deletes the “past” traces and the recording restarts from the last days before the cut. So, let’s say that the hair is “clean” in reference to the last month, there is no news on the previous period and if, on the other hand, the request was that, having cut the hair could be seen as a malicious attempt to cancel the tests , for a now “unrepeatable” measurement.
Clear that these measurements, in order to be reliable and clear, should be done immediately and in an informed manner in detail, but often this is not the case.
If the person, for example, has not been informed about the length of the required material, nor about the purpose, the fact of producing a hair that has recently grown back, and therefore only recent information and not many months ago, does not necessarily have to be seen as ” suspicious “or malicious.
What does it mean if the hair is positive
An examination of the hair does not allow in any way to make a diagnosis of drug addiction or “pathological” use, it simply detects an exposure, which at most can be quantified. In short, it can be established that in the period between tot and tot, the person was exposed more or less regularly, more or less heavily, to a substance. If you examine the hair in different fragments, you can reconstruct a more precise chronology, at the cost of a lower “sensitivity” to grasping low-level uses.
A positive hair test does not allow in any way to establish whether a person was in an altered condition at a specific time, as does a urinalysis.
For further information: License renewal: I will test positive for the hair
What to do to prove a mistake
First of all, the exam should be repeated automatically to minimize errors related to contextual factors or errors in the exam kit. However, there may be false positives , i.e. positive results because the test reacts to different substances, related or not to what would theoretically be the objective of the test.
It is important to know the type of kit used for the exam, as well as the type of exam performed, which in any case is a standard. According to the kit, the expected false positivities can be better verified.
Possible interactions with drugs
Obviously the drugs taken are one of the possible reasons for false positivities: not all reactions are known, so it happens that over time data about new false positivities are published.
Some medicines, such as opioid painkillers , can give a positive reaction that is “false” if you intend to measure other opioids (for example heroin), but until proven otherwise true if you intend to measure a series of opioids chemically in general similar. For example, if a person abuses oxycodone or buprenorphine, the test, even if it works, will not allow to distinguish the origin or the method of use. It will only be known that that person has taken that substance.
It is clear that in order to dispel doubts of this kind, a person would have to certify the drugs he takes from the outset, but many believe not to do so for fear of negative consequences: for example, to make it known that they are drug addicts in treatment, even if successfully and with nothing to hide, or because it could be read as an attempt to muddle the waters in presence instead of something to hide; or, again, because, even if of medicinal derivation and taken for therapeutic purposes, a series of substances are included at least on a first examination in the list of legally problematic or prohibited “substances”.
Hair Examination and Spontaneous Statements
Many people feel compelled, or think it is a good idea, to make spontaneous statements about what they use or have used, in anticipation of having to submit a hair examination.
The best thing ishear from your lawyer or consultant first . If a person, for example, declares that he does not use any or that he has never touched anything and then the examination reveals something else, it can give a negative impression, which may then have to be remedied by rectifying in some way.
If, on the other hand, an examination is successful, but the person had already given a version of him, the thing is instead a stumbling block for those who want to accuse him of anything. In other words: whoever has declared a use, knowing that it would come out, until proven otherwise is not a drug addict (other elements of another type are needed to say it), while the fact that one has denied and perhaps continues to deny even the evidence repeated examination suggests that it is.
It is therefore also good to understand that the exam cannot say everything, but that what it says must find a plausible confirmation, and cannot simply be “trashed”, unless it is shown that it was performed in an inadequate manner.
Passive intake and passive smoking Passive
contamination is possible , however the substances coming from the inside fix in the hair differently from the external contaminants. The preparation process therefore renders this interference irrelevant.
Internal contamination through passive exposures can be hypothesized: however, by analogy with urinary tests, the quantities tend to be low, so if the test has a tolerance threshold, it is unlikely that a passive exposure will make a hair test positive for a specific substance present in small quantities (such as thc). Already in the ad hoc experiments, the levels are minimal in unrealistic conditions, such as smoke in a sealed cockpit for an hour.
