Methods of identification and confirmation of abusive drugs in human urine

A thin-layer chromatography (TLC) procedure is described to be used as the initial drug detection method for urine surveillance in a drug abuse treatment program. While the TLC method is sufficiently sensitive, it is prone to false-positive results. For this reason, two other drug detection methods (gas-liquid chromatography and radioimmunoassay) have been incorporated to confirm positive results obtained with TLC. The combined methodologies result in a urine surveillance procedure that is versatile, sensitive and highly reliable.