I have been hearing this for years, the idea is that a whole lot can be told about a person from the hair. Aside from DNA, can they really find out stuff about you from a strand of hair. I was just informed by a friend that numerous science teachers have told her that LSD can be detected in the hair. I say no way, how can substances that normally are only in the system for a short period of time, in lsd’s case I would guess max a few days, register anything to the hair. I am looking for some real proof here, not just a opinion, so links to well known sites, maybe even a link to a Cecil post, would be great. Search for me turns up references, but no confirming if it is BS or not, most results are just sites selling something that is supposed to wash out the problem from your hair.
Too tired to search for sites but I know a fair amount about it. Yes, they can and do test hair for drugs. It is done by taking 25-50 hairs from an unobtrusive site on the head. The hair is then “blenderized” with a small amount of liquid and the resulting mixture is tested just like urine or blood. Since we know approximately how long it takes to grow hair a certain length, we can say that a person used, say, marijuana during that period of time (or didn’t).
LSD is used in such minute quantities that it is difficult to detect even in urine and blood. Most standard urine toxicologies don’t even bother testing for it. I would assume that this holds true for hair toxicologies also. However, LSD is sometimes cut with amphetamines and this would show up in most toxicology tests.
You used to be able to buy certified standard reference hair from the government, spiked with known amounts of certain drugs, so you could use it to calibrate your instrumentation. Looks like they aren’t selling it anymore, though. When they did, the drugs they put in it were cocaine, benzoylecgonine (a cocaine metabolite), morphine and codeine.
Do you have any proof of that?
How to find cocaine in hair. This is the technique they used to find cocaine and nicotene in the hair of mummies; thus seeming to indicate contact between ancient Ægypt and the West. Cecil’s take on the Cocaine Mummies.
They do use the hair thing to detect for pot and cocaine use in the military, especially when the results of a “whiz quiz” are for some reason in doubt.
BTW, I saw a flyer posted (in a military area) that said a new drink called “Jones Juice” contains some kind of hemp extract; enough to produce a positive on a urine test for pot use. Service members were warned not to drink the stuff to avoid risking their careers.