Opiate & Opioid Drug Testing

Opiates are natural chemical compounds that are extracted or refined from plant matter, such as poppy sap and fibres. Examples of opiates include heroin, morphine, and codeine.

The terms ‘opiates’ and ‘opioids’ are often used interchangeably. However, the two are different.

Unlike opiates, opioids are chemical compounds that are not generally derived from plant matter and are commonly manufactured in a ‘lab’ or ‘synthesized’. Examples of opioids include methadone and fentanyl.

Learn more: Opiate & opioid facts

Opiates and opioids are used in a variety of ways, depending on their format.

Often, they are ingested in tablet, capsule, or syrup form, but can also be inhaled using a nebuliser, or absorbed via a patch on the skin.

They may also be injected or smoked.

Even after the ‘high’ has worn off, and long after the drug was first consumed, opiate/opioid use can be detected by a drug test, depending on the type of test you take.

The drug testing detection windows for opiates/opioids are as follows:

• Oral fluid (saliva) – up to 48 hours
• Urine – up to 4 days
• Hair – up to 12 months (depending on the length of hair available)
• Nails – up to 12 months (up to 6 months for fingernails and up to 12 months for toenails)

Oral fluid and urine drug testing are known as ‘narrow-window’ forms of testing and can be used to detect drug use from 30 minutes after consumption, up to a few days.

This can vary depending on the type of substance and how much was used.

The rate at which hair and nails grow means that both hair drug testing and nail drug testing can provide a ‘wide-window’ of detection for drugs and their metabolites (up to 12 months).

The type of drug test you need depends on your circumstances, and how you intend to use the results of the test.

We offer four types of drug test to detect opiate/opioid use:

• Urine
• Oral fluid (Saliva)
• Hair
• Nail

Urine drug tests and oral fluid drug tests provide a narrow window of detection, meaning that they can only tell us whether an individual has been using drugs in the few days prior to the samples being collected.

A urine drug test provides a window of detection up to four days. An oral fluid (saliva) drug test provides a window of detection up to 48 hours.

This makes urine and oral fluid drug tests ideal for circumstances where an individual is suspected to be under the influence of drugs in the ‘here and now’, or for day-to-day monitoring of drug use.

Hair drug tests and nail drug tests provide us with a wide window of detection (up to 12 months). This is due to the way in which drugs are retained in the hair and nails, long after substances were first consumed.

Hair drug tests can be used to identify a month-by-month pattern or an overview of drug use (segmented or overview analysis) for up to 12 months. Nail drug tests are ideal where hair testing is not possible, providing an overview of historic drug use up to six months (fingernails) or up to 12 months (toenails).

If you require a drug test for legal reasons, or other official matters, you will need to instruct us for a legal drug test. For a legal drug test, samples are collected by a professional sample collector under strict chain of custody conditions, ensuring the test results are court-admissible.

If you require a drug test for personal reasons, our Home Drug Testing Kit is ideally suited for this purpose. For this test, you can collect your sample in the comfort of your own home, for results in just 5 minutes. The results of this test cannot be used in court or for official matters.

For advice on which test is best for you, call our friendly, discreet Customer Services team on 01 402 9466 or email info@alphabiolabs.ie.