The Australian Standards are published documents establishing a minimum standard for quality and safety criteria to ensure products, services and systems are safe, reliable and consistently perform the way they are intended to. 

Any drug test kit or breathalyser certified to standards confirms the reliability and usability of the product.

Drugs listed for detection in AS/NZS4308:2023:

Amphetamine type substances (methamphetamines) 300ng/mL
THC metabolites 50ng/mL
Cocaine and Metabolites 150ng/mL
Opiates 300ng/mL
Benzodiazepine 200ng/mL

Drugs listed for detection in AS/NZS4760:2019:

Amphetamine type substances (methamphetamines) 50ng/mL
THC parent drug 15ng/mL
Cocaine and Metabolites 50ng/mL
Opiates 50ng/mL
Oxycodone 40ng/mL

There are many terms used to explain the outcome of a test. To simplify things, you only need to understand three terms.

Negative

Negative is used when no drug is detected in the screen test or the GCMS/LCMS confirmation test.

Not-Negative

Not-negative is the term used at a an onsite screening test by either urine or saliva device. If a drug is present, according to these instant devices, the collected samples need to be further tested using either GCMS or LCMS to confirm.
At the screening stage, the term positive should NOT be used, as any preliminary test is presumptive in nature.

Positive

The term Positive can only be used with confirmation testing results using either a GCMS (Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry) or LCMS (Liquid Chromatography– Mass Spectrometry). Under AS4308 and AS4760.

Unless you are directed by a specific work order or a code of practice, as set out within the road and rail, transport, aviation and the mining industry, the decision to test is up to you.

How many people should I test?

The percentage of staff chosen to test is largely determined by the organisation and varies according to the risk assessment of the industry. If your company operates with heavy machinery the percentage of tests maybe greater than a company which solely operates in an office environment.

Many companies test all staff on a random testing basis, some test 10% - 20% daily or eekly. This will be determined by the company Drug and Alcohol Policy, operating environment and type of task performed. The company does have a “duty of care” to test.

What to use will depend on the contents of the organisation drug and alcohol policy. 

If convenience is the most important factor, and the organisation is testing “fit for shift”, saliva drug tests will be the best choice, as they are simple devices, and the test can be conducted without bathroom facilities.  Medinat's Saliva Tracer oral test kit is easy to use with a negative result in under 2 minutues.

If detection range is more important and you have a bathroom facilities available, a urine drug test would be a better solution. MediNat Maxiclear Urine drug testing cups can detect the use of up to 15 drugs in one urine test within minutes.

No. Only an alcohol breath analyser can determine the level of impairment of an individual is from alcohol consumption.

Both saliva and urine tests can only detect the presence of a drug in a person’s system (quantitative). The saliva drug test is more likely to detect recent drug use, and a urine test can detect drugs up to a longer period.

Note: Saliva and Urine drug tests only determine the presence of drugs over a certain amount called the “cut off” e.g THC 50ng/ml, this will only show the presence of THC over 50ng/ml

Saliva and Urine drug tests do not determine the presence of a drug under the amount “cut off” amount nominated . An example would be a breathalyser that only showed a result if the user was over 0.05% BAC

A company has many different options to conduct a test.

You can have a specialised on- site tester, have a nominated and fully trained member of staff conduct the test or you can send the staff member to a workplace medical facility to be tested.

When conducting the drug and alcohol test on site, the tester must be certified in HLTPAT005 Collect Specimens for Drugs of Abuse Testing.

For most industries conducting workplace drug and alcohol testing, the standards are a guide for the product to use and criteria for testing.  The mining and aviation industries are regulated and refer to the standards. Organisations should confirm with their legal representative.

Even though the Codes are not necessarily binding, they are usually referred to by inspectors enforcing Workplace Health and Safety standards. If Australian Standards are applied to your business or products, it shows that you have taken measures to ensure your products are of quality, and that they have been thoroughly checked and qualified for commercial usage.

No. Not if the correct test device and procedure is used. There is a belief that masking agents such as fake urine or water-diluted samples can produce a negative result.

All commercially available masking agents can be detected by a trained collector when performing an Adulteration Test.

It is recommended to use Urine Drug Test Cups with an inbuilt temperature strip and adulterants strips.

The temperature strip can detect if the sample is body temperature. If not it could be an indicator of interference with the sample such as dilution with water.

Adulterant tests validate the integrity of the sample. They will show if masking agents have been used, the sample is diluted or false agents are added to the sample.

For Saliva drug testing it is advised to have the candidate thoroughly rinse their mouth with water 10 minutes before the saliva drug test. This cleanses the masking substances from the current saliva and allows fresh unadulterated saliva to generate.

Yes. Synthetic cannabis can be detected through urine testing.

Synthetic cannabis which is sold under multiple brand names such as Kronic, K2, Spice, Kaos can contain any number of ingredients, most claiming to be herbal, but the most prevalent analogues are JWH-018 pentanoic acid, JWH-018 propanoic acid, JWH-073 butanoic acid, JWH-210 N-5 carboxypentyl, JWH-398 N pentanoic acid and MAM2201 N pentanoic acid which can be detected.

Synthetic Cannabis is difficult to detect with Saliva Tests in a field test situation.

While saliva/oral fluid tests for K2 are successful in laboratory conditions down as low as 20ng/ml, naturally produced saliva carries a very small amount of these chemicals and detection may be haphazard at best.

No. The saliva and the urine test are two completely different types of drug tests and essentially test different chemical compositions.

The cut off levels as per the Australian Standard are designed to detect a drug which has been processed at separate rates and in separate parts of the body i. e. Saliva should test for the parent drug with THC (Δ9-THC) in oral fluid, Urine tests for the metabolite (THC-COOH) in urine.

No. Drug tests do not measure the degree of impairment as they are not qualitative, apart from breath testing. Tests are dependent on a number of factors including the strength of the drug, route of administration, metabolism, pattern of drug use and the collection device used.

Due diligence must be followed when collecting a sample from a donor through to that sample being provided to a laboratory for confirmation testing.

A chain of custody form must be completed by the appropriate people including; the donor (employee), the collector (on-site tester) and the laboratory analysts, security seals are also placed on the sample and transport bags to ensure the sample is not tampered with.

Zero tolerance for workplace drug and alcohol testing is a term that is used in a number of different ways and is often not understood by many employees.

Some organisations state their employees are not allowed to have any alcohol or drugs in their system otherwise their employment will be terminated. Whereas other organisations understand zero tolerance means administrative action will be taken against every instance where an employee has a negative result from an alcohol or drug test. It is important that your Drug and Alcohol Policy clearly states how your organisation uses the term. Factors to consider include:

• Allowable levels of alcohol or drugs in your body
• For example. 0.0% or 0.05% Blood Alcohol Concentration
• What action will be taken if an employee returns a negative result
• Disciplinary action will escalate after every instance of a negative result (often a three stepped approach is used in these circumstances);
• Termination of employment is considered however the employee has an opportunity to explain their actions or reasons for special consideration; or
• Immediate termination of employment.
• A common position taken by companies is if a three strike policy giving the employee an opportunity to demonstrate they made an error in judgement and are taking steps to prevent any further incidents.

Best practice for workplace drug and alcohol testing programs, requires the implementation of a meaningful Drug and Alcohol Policy in conjunction with effective employee education programs.

Can I target test staff members or does it have to be random?

Your Alcohol and Drug Policy will cover this area in detail; stipulating that you can conduct both random and target testing.

Whilst it is recommended that organisation’s conduct random testing across the whole organisation, target testing is appropriate if, for example, an employee is involved in an accident.