Governor Bobby Jindal recently approved Act 74, which clarifies that hair tests are an acceptable method for employers to drug test potential hires. Hair testing detects drug use by an individual up to 90 days prior to the day the test is given. Meanwhile urine and blood tests can only detect drug use up to a few days before the test is administered. 

Since 1997, Louisiana’s law on drug testing was worded in such a way that it did not explicitly preclude hair testing. However, the prior version of the law did not specify the accreditations required for facilities to actually process the results of the hair tests. Under the newly enacted version, the statute provides that any facility accredited by the College of American Pathologists may process hair tests.