Cansford Labs Blog

The quality of the analysis of drugs in biological material in the forensic area is important because the results of the analysis affect judicial decisions.

Cansford Laboratories is proud to be the only UK laboratory to be presenting at the Society of Hair Testing for the second year running! Our poster, titled “Hair analysis in the workplace: global harmonisation required”, will be on show in Bordeaux from the 11-13 June 2014.
We pride ourselves on innovation and experience in the field of hair drug testing and are proud to share our knowledge with others.

Thanks to our friends at Screen4, a handy guide has been produced to help employers identify if their staff could be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Scientists based in Cardiff that revolutionised the drug and alcohol abuse testing techniques reach 21st year milestone

The founders of Tricho Tech, and more recently Cansford Laboratories are celebrating 21 years in the field of hair drug testing, Cansford Laboratories is proud to be featured in the Western mail today.

Time is a critical element to getting child custody cases resolved effectively without excessive costs.

Drug testing using hair

Here is a list that was published in the Guardian on what drugs kill the most people in the United Kingdom.
At Cansford we mostly see people tested for drugs like cocaine and heroin, but when you consider the amount of deaths related to alcohol it really does suggest that this is a big issue too.
Since this report was published we would guess cocaine use may have reduced a little due to people feeling the pinch financially, and with cheaper alternatives on the rise.
All in all, this type of list gives a broad view of the potential of drug use leading to fatalities, and even though cannabis use is prevalent in the UK it has relatively few deaths associated with it.

Do you have a drug testing policy in place within your organisation? If the answer is ‘no’ then this is really the place to start. We have a sample that you can download and here are some hints and tips that may well help too:

• In our experience, between 3% and 5% of people in the workforce use illegal substances i.e. drugs. So, if you have 100 staff that you could test, it is likely you will find a number of people have used drugs. As such, you should prepared for that result.
• When it comes to drug tests at work, you should consider the outcome you are seeking before you begin. If you want to, for instance, prevent people from working heavy machinery ‘under the influence’ then using an oral fluid test or a urine test will be sufficient as it tends to pick up recent usage.
• If you want to know if members of staff have used drugs within the past few months, hair testing will be the option to choose. This is particularly relevant when considering employee performance.
• Drug testing, if not already conducted within the organisation, will often cause people to raise eyebrows and concerns about the concept. As such, gaining employee agreement and even planning to conduct the ‘performance related’ tests in future by e.g. 3 or 6 months, could allay concerns. This way any casual drug user could change their ways and still comply.
• Is all drug use to be stamped out? This is down to the nature of the culture of your organisation. Alcohol is a legal drug and could potentially cause considerable harm as well as leading to performance issues longer term as well. Know what you are getting into when choosing to test for illegal drug use.