Saliva testing strips are also known as an oral fluid drug test and is majorly used for occupational drug testing.They test for small amounts (or traces) of active THC which remain within the saliva when people use Marijuana.   This doesn’t tell us if a person is impaired, just that the person has come into contact/ingested the drug within the last 6 to 8 hours, as that’s roughly how long the body would take to metabolize the active THC to carboxy THC.

Process

• Strip is inserted into the mouth of the person being checked
• The strip gets wet
• The presence of certain drugs can be shown by color changes in the strip
• Traces of the drugs being tested for will create a color band on the strip indicating presence of the drug while a negative result will show no color.

Several factors can affect the detection times, making it vary from hours, days, weeks and months depending on the drug being tested and the amount taken.  The most appropriate detection times for saliva test when various drugs have been used include:

• Alcohol – basically from the time of consumption to 12 hours
• Cannabis – this takes a few minutes from ingestion time to a day
• Cocaine – few minutes from ingestion time to a day
• PCP – Few minutes from the ingestion time to 3 days
• Opiates – From an hour of intake up to 3 days
• Benzodiazepines – has not been known yet
• Amphetamines – takes a few minutes to 3 days of consumption
• Methamphetamine – takes half an hour from ingestion to up to 3 days

Advantages:

• Eliminates the instances of cheating since the process of sample collection is not hard as in the case of urine where users can simply change the sample.
• Quick and easy
• Immediate results
• Simple and un-intrusive
• No need for a private room (like urine testing requires)
• Checks for recent THC use, not long term

Cons

• Doesn’t give a level of how impaired a person is