Drug testing has been happening in the United States for a very long time. Testing urine and blood for diagnostics purposes (in relation to medicine and patients) has been going on for over 100 years. Evidence even suggests that urine and blood samples were taken even thousands of years ago and studied for color and appearance as helpful indicators of disease in diagnostics. But actually testing a sample for the presence of drugs is only just over a century old now.

The beginning of the Drug Testing policies in the United States began in the 1920’s when tests were done on a person’s blood and breath. These were used to help officers identify drunk drivers as this was beginning of the first ‘war on drugs’ and the era of prohibition. But it would be a few decades before actual laboratory testing was performed on a urine sample to determine anything more than basic diagnostics.

However, it was not until returning Veterans from the Vietnam War were subjected to urinalyses that mass drug testing came into being. The original concern behind these tests was that many soldiers who were returning were now addicted to opiates and heroin (as the stereotypical belief of the time was that these drugs were highly prevalent in Vietnam). Because these were the only drugs believed to be used by the soldiers at the time only they were the ones tested for. It was not long before this policy became widespread across all factions of the United States Military.