Marijuana.com

SweatingBullets

First of all, Happy Holidays to all posters and members here. I've got a hair test coming up soon and have been doing a lot of reading and researching. For tonight, I have two relatively simple questions for anyone.

1. Who determines the cut-off levels for hair tests? (Is it a government regulated figure that all labs must adhere to? Is it up to the lab? Can an employer dictate the levels?)

2. From what I have been seeing, the cutoff level for the THC level is much more "strict" than the levels of the other drugs tested, (that I consider more "severe" in nature). Is that because THC is harder to detect, (and does not accummulate in hair as easy as the other drugs tested)?

Many thanks...again, (and I'll be back)...

 

JackBauer

First one, it is like a consensus between government and private sector doctors and scientists and probably even lawyers that determines these levels. They try to come up with cut off levels that eliminate passive exposure. In urine testing there are about 3 widely accepted cutoff, 100 ng/ml, 50 ng/ml, and 20 ng/ml on immunoassay using 31 metabolites. There are different cutoff for GC/MS. Most use the 50 ng/ml because the 100 isn't quite sensitive enough and the 20 ng/ml is too sensitive. I have seen studies even by the government that using the 20 ng/ml cutoff can result in false positives. In fact I think for a short time the 20 ng/ml was being used more widely than the 50 but then most started to go back to the 50 ng/ml because of false positives. So these 3 cutoffs are set by a group and the employers choose what level to use. However, in hair testing I have only seen one set of cutoff levels used.

Second one, all you need to know is that if your hair is 1 & 1/2 inches long and you smoked 3 times during that 90 day period, you have met the threshold and are in danger of testing positive.

SweatingBullets

"Second one, all you need to know is that if your hair is 1 & 1/2 inches long and you smoked 3 times during that 90 day period, you have met the threshold and are in danger of testing positive."
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Thanks for the detailed answer on my first question. As far as the second answer (above), here is a brief history, (which I posted earlier in another thread that you also responded to there).

Test date - 30 days ago: Totally clean
30 days - 60 days ago: Totally clean
60 days - 90 days ago: smoked a few times, (2-3 hits per day), over a four day period 77-80 days from when test will be
(Before that clean for at least until Memorial Day)

Based on a formula that you provided, (adding 10 days after my last smoke), I figurd that I need to have my hair be less than 1.116 inches in length. Right now no hair on my head is over 1" long.

When I found out last week about the hair test, I did a lot of research and ordered 2 home tests and did them last Friday hoping to get the results before my "real thing". I did NO treatment for these home tests, (I wanted to get them done and shipped to the labs before Christmas).

Tomorrow I plan on buying the "Macujo Materials" to prep for the "real thing" coming up in a few days. Needless to say these have not been the most enjoyable holidays in my lifetime.

I thank you again for your response and will keep you posted on things.