Urine Drug Screening
PathWest’s specialist clinical pharmacology and toxicology laboratory team works with a range of government, industry bodies and private organisations across the state to support drug testing programs and to assist employers to meet their responsibilities under workplace health and safety legislation and guidelines. The team has a broad and deep range of clinical, technical and scientific expertise and can assist with the advice and interpretation of results, urine drug testing, collection services, drug screening and confirmation testing to AS/NZS 4308:2008.
We can provide customised services to suit organisations, but also actively support community health and the justice system through our partnership with a range of government and private organisations.
Ask us about on-site drug testing as part of an ongoing program at your workplace.
What drugs do we test for?
PathWest offers drug testing for the common drugs of abuse including amphetamines (e.g. speed and ecstasy), benzodiazepines (valium and serapax), opiates (heroin, opium, morphine and codeine), cannabinoids (cannabis, marijuana and hashish), and cocaine (coke).
Other drugs such as methadone and buprenorphine can be tested, but usage of these drugs is infrequent or restricted to certain populations and routine testing is usually not warranted.
Collection of samples and courier services
PathWest has a large network of collection centres throughout the state and a comprehensive air and road courier network to help get your samples to the lab. Specialised urine collection services, with appropriately trained collection staff, are offered at specified locations across the state. You can find a list of these centres here. We also offer urine drug testing to individuals – see FAQs below for more information.
Accreditations and Australian Standards
The PathWest pharmacology and toxicology laboratory is accredited through the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) for medical testing according to ISO standard ISO/AS 15189.
Along with NATA accreditation, the laboratory participates in two external quality assurance programs. Three external quality control samples are provided each month to the Austox program in NSW and to the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia quality assurance program or urine toxicology. In addition, every assay batch includes blank samples as well as quality controls 25% above and 25% below the cut-off threshold limit.
PathWest provides urine drug tests according to the Australian/New Zealand Drug testing standard AS/NZ 4308:2008. Our specialised drug and alcohol collection staff are experienced in collecting urine samples according to AS/NZ 4308:2008. Through an affiliation with the North Metropolitan Health Service’s Registered Training Organisation, PathWest delivers the accredited training in this area including ‘HLTPAT005 - Collect specimens for drugs of abuse testing course to phlebotomists across Western Australia’.
Learn more about urine drug screening
It's relatively straight forward to set up a program for testing but there are some medico-legal processes to navigate, including setting up a 'chain of custody'. Here is a quick overview of the process in six steps:
- Get in touch. You can send an enquiry to us or if you are ready, get a quote started here. You can also call Tony Gill in the Client Liaison Team on 0437 313 079.
- Discuss your needs with us.
- Set up a chain of custody procedure, which is a legal term referring to the ability to trace a sample from the time of collection to the reporting of results. The chain of custody is designed to ensure that the results are from the identified person.
- Discuss sample collection.
- Finalise reporting preferences.
- Provide chain of custody documents including a customised request form.
- Confirmation to get started.
You can attend a designated PathWest drug screening collection centre during opening hours for your urine drug test and do not need a request from a doctor/health care practitioner. Find your closest collection centre or download a list of PathWest designated centres.
Urine drug screening requires specially trained staff for taking these samples so not all collection centres offer urine drug collections.
You are required to present photographic identification for your test. Please note this test is not covered by Medicare and payment is required at time of collection. PathWest collection centres do not accept cash payments.
Results should be available within 24 to 48 hours of presenting for your test. You can arrange to pick up your results or they can be posted to you.
Please get in touch with us if you have any further queries.
The length of time for which a drug will remain detectable in urine depends on the rate of drug excretion in the individual, the quantity and frequency of drug use and the sensitivity and cut-off levels of the testing procedure. Here are some average detection times for common drugs of abuse.
Drug |
Length of time |
| Amphetamines | 2 days |
| Benzodiazepines | 3 days if therapeutic dose ingested or up to four to six weeks after chronic dosing |
| Cannabinoids |
Moderate smokeer (four or more per week) - 5 days |
| Cocaine | 2-4 days |
| Ethanol | 2-14 hours |
| Methdaone | 3 days |
| Opiates | 2days |
Exact costing will depend on how many drugs are included in the screening procedure and on the number of samples tested. We can work with your company to customise your service. You can request a quote here.
Please note the following are provided as a basic cost guide only and subject to change or may vary depending on service arrangements. Costs include GST. As an indication:
- A screen for opiates, benzodiazepines, cocaine, amphetamines and cannabinoids would usually be in the range of $35 to $50, and
- Each individual confirmatory test starts from $ (tests for creatinine levels and adulteration are included in this cost).
For organisations, a chain of custody form (see 'how to get started' in the FAQ above), must accompany each sample and be completed correctly by each person who handles the sample through the chain of custody process. Samples for testing must be collected using the correct procedure to ensure that the results are from the identified person.
The PathWest collection process (in our centres or on your site) usually involves:
- Identification of individual e.g. driver’s licence with photograph or passport
- Minimisation of possible sample adulteration (either via collector or individual) such as removing excess clothing and personal belongings, thoroughly washing hands, adding coloured cleaning solution to the toilet bowl, removing cleaning solutions from the collection area and making the hot water outlet inoperable
- Individual provides urine sample which the collector ensures in kept in sight by both the individual and the collector until sealed
- Collector immediately measures and records the sample temperature
- Collector tests for creatinine to check that the sample is suitably concentrated for a urine drug screen
- Collector labels the sample including name, date of birth, date and time of collection
- Collector places the sample and chain of custody form in a biohazard bag, and
- Collector places tamper-evident seals on all samples sent to the laboratory.
Urine testing typically involves a screening test followed by a confirmation test which is a further test that is required on any specimens that are not-negative on the initial screening.
PathWest policy requires secure and confidential transmission of urine drug test results to ensure patient confidentiality. Results are only issued via the chain of custody process as per the following methods:
- Fax (where confidentiality can be guaranteed), and
- Electronically via PathWest Direct to a nominated chain of custody contact.
If you have arranged for a personal test (not through your workplace), you can arrange for results to be posted to you. To protect patient privacy, we do not release results by email.
Test results for organisations with a chain of custody in place are available within one working day from receipt of samples at PathWest QEII Medical Centre laboratories. Initial screen confirmatory results are generally available within two working days.
Samples that arrive overnight are processed at 6am the following morning during the working week (excluding weekends and public holidays). Initial reports with negative results are issued late morning on the same day.
If your company has PathWest Direct electronic reporting set up, reports will immediately transmit to your nominated computer after a check and validation by a medical scientist. If the results indicate that any drug class is not negative, then an interim report will be issued which states that the relevant drug class has ‘confirmation required’.
Due to the difficulty of determining patient identity over the telephone, and to ensure your privacy and confidentiality are maintained, PathWest cannot release or discuss results via telephone.
Additionally, PathWest cannot discuss other people's results or provide advice if an individual has attended for a drug screen for the same privacy and confidentiality reasons. Results can only be released by the PathWest Toxicology laboratory team. If you wish to discuss results, please get in touch.
Drug screens that return negative results are reported quicker than cases where confirmation is required. For this reason, reports may not follow the order in which employees presented for their collections.
Please be aware that normal turn-around times for confirmation results are between two and three working days. If you have not received confirmation results in that time-frame, please contact the laboratory.
Mass spectrometry is the only method recommended by the Australian Standard for drugs of abuse testing in the workplace. Mass spectrometry identification has been tested many times in courts of law.
PathWest operates two mass spectrometry techniques: Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) and Liquid Chromatography tandem Mass Spectrometry (LCMSMS).
These methods are based on the separation of drugs on a chromatographic column followed by detection by molecular fragmentation. The formation of characteristic fragments enables a ‘finger print’ identification of a wide range of drugs.
For a positive result to be confirmed, the drug must not only be identified by its ‘finger print’ pattern, but its concentration in the sample must be above the cut-off threshold recommended by the Australian Standard or outlined in your company’s ‘Alcohol and Other Drug Policy’.
All samples that have a positive result are stored frozen in a locked freezer for three months after testing.
The laboratory analysts include the comment ‘consistent with medication’ if the mass spectrometry confirmation results can be explained by the medication that is declared on the chain of custody form.
If this comment is not there, then there was no medication that can explain the result. If the documentation needs to be amended to include a list of medication declared by the test subject, please contact the laboratory. Please note that this only applies to mass spectrometry confirmation results.
‘Confirmation Required’ is the term used when an interim report indicates that one or more drug class is not negative on the initial screen test. A more sophisticated and sensitive confirmation test is then required to confirm the result.
PathWest confirmation testing, compliant with AS/NZS 4308:2008, requires the use of mass spectrometry. Please note confirmation testing can take up to two working days and attracts an additional cost.
If you (or your organisation) does not have an automatic default to perform confirmation testing where needed, then please contact our toxicology laboratory to arrange.
If you have arranged for automatic confirmations, PathWest will release the initial screen test report simultaneously with the confirmation report. This means where an initial test reports ‘Confirmation Required’, you should also receive a mass spectrometry report of the confirmation performed.
Please note however that there may be a time-lag through the electronic reporting system for these reports. We advise organisations wait until the end of the day before enquiring about an automatic confirmation report.
Sometimes, even though a confirmation is required based on the initial test, the confirmation result is ‘negative’. This is particularly the case for amphetamine-type compounds, because the initial screen test for this class of drugs is not as selective or specific as other classes of drugs in an initial screen test.
Food items or medications may cross-react with an initial screen test. If the confirmation result is ‘negative’, then the entire test can be considered ‘negative’. At this point, the initial test result suggesting ‘confirmation required’ is superseded.
Methamphetamine is an illegal drug in Australia - it is not present in any legal medication in Australia. Please note that dexamphetamine does not explain a positive mass spectrometry result for methamphetamine.
AS/NZS 4308:2008 has a provision for cases where a result is disputed. This involves testing the referee sample that was also sealed at time of collection.
To organise the testing of the referee sample, consent must be provided by the test subject and sent to the laboratory in writing. Sometimes the sample is sent to another independent AS/NZS 4308:2008 laboratory to conduct the analysis.
Note that cut-off levels do not apply to referee sample analysis because AS/NZS 4308:2008 allows and acknowledges that drugs sometimes deteriorate in urine over time, so that the exact same concentration is unlikely to be found in the referee analysis.
Creatinine is a compound that is naturally produced by the body. It is used to give an indication of how concentrated or dilute a urine specimen is. If someone drinks a lot of fluids before producing a urine specimen, then the Creatinine level will be low. If the Creatinine level is below 1.8 mmol/L then it is not considered to be suitable for drug testing because it is dilute and there is a higher probability that if drugs are present they will be 'diluted' below the testing cut-off concentrations.
If your report states that the Creatinine is low, and the report is not accepted for the purpose that you need it, you will need to give another sample. Remember Creatinine levels lower the more fluid you consume prior to providing a sample.
There are several checks to ensure that samples tested are free from contamination or adulteration.
When the sample is collected the temperature is taken within four minutes and should fall within an acceptable temperature range of 33 to 38oC.
The level of creatinine in the sample is also measured and must be above 1.8 mmol/L (millimoles per litre - this is a unit of concentration) to indicate no dilution. Creatinine is produced in the body and naturally excreted in urine. In addition, the sample is also tested for compounds that may have been added to the urine to produce a negative result.
The Australian Standard AS4308 details appropriate cut-offs for both the screening and confirmatory tests.
SCREENING TEST CUT-OFF LEVELS |
CONFIRMATORY TEST CUT-OFF |
||
Class of Drug |
Tests (µg/l) |
Individual drug |
Tests (µg/l) * |
| Amphetamines | 300 | Amphetamine | 150 |
| Methyl-amphetamine | 150 | ||
| Benzodiazepines |
200 |
Diazepam | 200 |
| Oxazepam | 200 | ||
| Temazepam | 200 | ||
| Nordiazepam | 200 | ||
| Hydroxy-alprazolam | 100 | ||
| 7-amino-clonazepam | 100 | ||
| 7-amino-flunitrazepam | 100 | ||
| 7-amino-nitrazepam | 100 | ||
| Opiates | 300 | Codeine | 300 |
| Morphine | 300 | ||
| Cannabis Metabolites | 50 | Delta 9-THC COOH | 15 |
| Cocaine Metabolites | 300 | Cocaine | 150 |
Note: this table is for example purposes only.
* µg/l = microgram per Litre
The Standards Association of Australia first introduced the Australian and New Zealand Standard (AS/NZZ4308) for drugs of abuse testing in 1995. The current version (as of September 2021) is AS/NZ4308:2008.
It is designed to ensure the highest possible quality and reliability in all laboratory procedures for both the initial screen and for the confirmation test. It recommends appropriate methods for sample collection and gives details of threshold cut-off levels for the analysis of these drugs.