It is at least a decade since scientists turned their imaginations to creating new compact, portable test instruments and self-contained test kits that could be used to analyze urine and saliva for alcohol, drugs, and their metabolites. Although the potential applications for such tests at the site of specimen collection, now called on-site or point-of-care testing, range far beyond hospital emergency rooms and law enforcement needs, it was catalyzed by the requirements of workplace drug testing and other drugs-of-abuse testing programs. These programs are now a minor national industry in the...

It is at least a decade since scientists turned their imaginations to creating new compact, portable test instruments and self-contained test kits that could be used to analyze urine and saliva for alcohol, drugs, and their metabolites. Although the potential applications for such tests at the site of specimen collection, now called on-site or point-of-care testing, range far beyond hospital emergency rooms and law enforcement needs, it was catalyzed by the requirements of workplace drug testing and other drugs-of-abuse testing programs. These programs are now a minor national industry in the...