Comparison of costs for testing a wide variety of drugs of abuse per urine specimen in a drug abuse rurine screening program and frequent urine collections

Abstract

Existing urine testing techniques in a drug abuse urine screening program with their capacity to analyze urine specimens per day are discussed. The start-up cost using each technique and cost per specimen are presented. A single step extraction technique using ion-exchange paper to absorb drugs prior tot hin-layer chromatography (TLC) as reported by these laboratories will cost $0.58 per specimen, detecting opiates and performing at least four tests per specimen, and $0.82 per specimen, for testing the entire array of drugs of abuse (at least 9–14 tests per specimen). Sensitivity reported using TLC technique for the morphine base is 0.15 μg/ml (minimum volume of urine needed 20 ml), 0.10 μg/ml if the volume of urine available is 30–35 ml, and 0.07 μg/ml if the volume of urine available is 43–50 ml.