CHAPTER 10: Drug Tests in Prevention Research.

The article examines the reasons why most research on drug use has not used drug testing more widely. Drug tests provide evident of recent use of specific drugs but do not reveal patterns of use over time, the amount of drugs used, or information about drug dependence and other consequences of drug use. There is also concern about the accuracy and reliability of drug tests, about the intrusiveness of sample collection, about racial bias, about the possibility that passive exposure could lead to positive drug test results, and finally, about the costs of drug tests.