How long does alcohol stay in your hair for drug testing?

If the test is looking for ALCOHOL, like if you got in an industrial accident and they want to make sure you aren't drunk, you only stay hot until your body metabolizes the alcohol to ethyl glucuronide. Basically, one drink per hour. (A drink is an ounce of 80-proof distilled spirit, five ounces of non-fortified wine or a 12-ounce beer.) If you watch a two-hour Basketball game and drink two beers, give yourself an hour after the last one and you should be sober again. There's a more recent test called EtG. This thing can detect ethyl glucuronide for 80 hours after the last time you drank--over three days. Probation officers love this test because they can pull you in on a Monday and see if you drank this weekend. The problem with it is it's so sensitive, it will show positive if you apply an alcohol-containing product to your skin, breathe its fumes or use a medicine that contains it. Translation: you can come up hot on this test just from living in America. SAMSHA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, has tested this screen and has advised through a "black box warning" (the very strongest one) that it's not reliable. Hand sanitizer will set it off. Gel deodorant will set it off. But district attorneys love it (because it can be used to send parolees back to prison, which looks GREAT at reelection time) and there's $6 million per year in revenue associated with this test, so figure the odds on it disappearing any time soon.