Pros and Cons of an At-Home Drug Test

If you’re applying for jobs, you’ll likely be asked to complete a drug test if you’ve been offered a position. The drug test could be in the form of a follicle test, a urine test, blood test, or even a breathalyzer. Most of these tests have to be conducted at a lab, but some of them can be done right from the comfort of your own home.

If your future company allows you to administer and take the test at your house, you can do that by picking up an at-home test at one of your local drug stores. While this may seem like the best option, there are many pros and cons that come with it.

Pros of an At-Home Drug Test

The first pro of doing an at-home test is that you’ll be able to know the results much sooner than you would if you went to a lab. Even though you’ll have to mail your test away, it typically only takes a few business days to get the results back. You’ll also get to know the results of the test before your employer does so you know what to expect. The rapid drug screens are also extremely easy to perform as you can simply just urinate into a cup or remove a bit of your hair. For the hair tests, the primary benefit is the much longer detection period for drug use, which typically is up to 90 days.

If you are a bit uneasy about taking a test and having people know that it was you who took it, you don’t have to worry with the at-home tests. At-home drug test kits are anonymous, as they use a code of numbers instead of using your real name. You don’t have to stress out about someone seeing the results and then associating those results with you as a person.

Cons of an At-Home Drug Screening

Even though there are a few pros to using an at-home drug test, there are also many cons. First, at-home tests won’t be able to give you the full, detailed results you might want. For example, these tests usually only give you a grade of “pass” or “fail.” If you fail the test, you won’t be told by how much or even know what caused you to fail. If you were to have the test professionally administered, all of this information would be laid out for you. Much like when you’re given a breathalyzer, you know a specific number, and that number can only be determined professionally. The numbers from the breathalyzer are helpful, just as the ones from the drug test are.

The other con of the at-home tests is that they are much easier to cheat on than ones taken at a lab. While this might seem as a benefit for those taking the test, it isn’t honest and can get you in a lot of trouble in the long run. You want to be able to provide your employer with the most honest results so that you start off on a good note.

At-home drug tests are sometimes an option in different situations. While they are good in many ways, they also come with a slew of cons, such as the ones listed above.