How to Beat a Drug Test

Cheating a drug test is getting tougher...

There are three primary ways to "try" to fool a drug Test: Dilution, Substitution, and Adulteration.

Diluting a Urine Sample:

A "dilute specimen" is a urine sample that has a higher than average water content. The goal when diluting a sample is to minimize the drug levels visible in urine. Laboratories have specific cut-off points where, even if the drug is detected, it will not be marked as a positive result because there is very little in the sample.

Unintentional dilution is fairly common. When a test applicant consumes excessive amounts of fluid, the concentration of urine will subsequently become dilute. This can be abused by intentionally over-consuming large amounts of water prior to a drug test. This will lower drug ratios in the urine. Unfortunately for cheaters, this does not guarantee a negative result, and the laboratory will immediately detect the diluted sample.

The malicious form of dilution is adding pure water directly to the urine sample. This is the reason testing laboratories add dye to their toilets and shut off faucets. This is also very easy to detect.

Substituting your Urine:

This is the only method of cheating a drug test that has a consistent rate of success. Substituting a urine sample is when the donor provides urine that did not originate from his or her body. The most popular form of this is urine from concentrate. Powdered urine can be purchased online in packets, and then mixed with water to form urine. Liquid urine, synthetic urine, and urine from another person are also commonly used.

The biggest challenge in using substitute urine is keeping the urine at the correct temperature. Providing a trained collector with a cold (or hot) sample will immediately flag you, and you will be forced to retest. Chemical pocket warmers are commonly used to keep hidden urine warm.

Adulterating a Sample:

An "adulterated specimen" is a urine sample that has been tampered with. Adding certain chemicals to a urine sample will either mask the presence of drugs or interfere with the laboratory equipment. These chemicals are also easily detected by the lab, and the specimen will be flagged as adulterated.

Common chemicals used for "doping" samples are soap, salt, bleach, and eye drops.

Other Methods:

Commercial "screens", marketed everywhere, like Goldenseal, QuickKlean, or Mary Jane Super Clean 13. These products do little more than dilute or adulterate a sample. Any of them will flag the urine sample at the lab as tampered-with.

Drinking vinegar. It lowers the pH of urine, giving the lab evidence of tampering. Drinking enough to sufficiently "mask" a sample also causes violent diarrhea.

Myths!

Taking creatine will raise creatinine levels

Creatinine is one of the tested parameters when identifying diluted urine. A common myth is that taking creatine or eating red meat will boost the creatinine in the urine. This is a false assumption and has no effect.

Dog urine can be substituted to pass a drug test.

The lab will immediately flag this. Please leave your poor animal out of this.

Stealing your specimen from the lab:

We have overheard daring drug test applicants saying that stealing the sample from the lab will prevent them from processing the results. The theory being that labs would never never admit they lost a specimen, so they would report your test as negative and you'd get hired anyway. This is just ridiculous, do not even attempt to burglarize a laboratory!

Increasing your metabolism:

This rumor says that raising your metabolism will reduce the amount of time a drug can be detected in your system, and, eating a high calorie diet and starting an intense exercise program will do the same. These are both incorrect.

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There are three ways that cheaters are ultimately caught:

At the Laboratory:

Labs have greatly improved their methods in detecting those specimens that have been tampered with by the donor.

Cheating drug tests by "adulterating" urine samples, or altering a specimen by changing its concentration, is a common practice that drug abusers use to hide the presence of drugs in their system. Previously, some abusers were able to pass a drug test by using one of these strategies. But new lab technologies are now detecting drugs in samples that were altered and un-testable before. Today, lab tests measuring specific gravity, pH, creatinine levels, and temperature are determining "positive" and "negative" results - and attempts at cheating drug tests - more accurately than ever.

Lab tests today can often indicate that the sample is not from the donor. In a somewhat humorous case, a man substituted his sample with that of his wife. When the specimen failed the temperature test, subsequent lab testing indicated "he" was pregnant.

Adulterated samples will throw pH levels off or exhibit substances not normally found in urine. In cases where a definite positive or negative result cannot be determined, donors may be required to resubmit a sample under "direct observation" supervision. New lab testing methods now easily determine the presence of nitrites, such as the masking agent found in Klear®. Once nitrites are detected, further testing removes the masking effect to discover which drugs are present. Laboratories are constantly updating testing methods as new adulterant products enter the market.

At the Collection Site:

While lab technology can now identify adulterated samples and other attempts at cheating drug tests, safeguards also exist at the urine specimen collection site, whether it's at a clinic or at the job-site.

For example: donors must present a photo ID. They must wash their hands before entering the collection room to reduce the risk of smuggling substances under their fingernails or on their hands; they are not allowed in the bathroom with coats, purses, bags, or other objects that may be used to conceal an adulterant. Soaps, other possible adulterants are removed from bathroom; toilet water is tinted blue so it can't be used to dilute a sample; they are allowed a maximum of four minutes to exit with a proper specimen.

Using Onsite Testing:

Onsite specimen collections are the most effective way to catch would-be cheaters. Cheating drug tests has caused more and more companies to have a trained Drug Test Technician (DTT) visit their offices, warehouse, manufacturing plant, or other sites "onsite" and have the drug test urine specimen collections performed right there, where their employees are "on the job". A DTT considers a properly-performed drug test collection their top priority. This includes taking the special precautions necessary to ensure that the donor (employee) is not attempting to either substitute or adulterate their specimen.

In the case of "onsite" collections, the donor is routinely required to report immediately and directly to the Drug Test Technician (DTT) when notified of drug test. The donor is not permitted to "go the the locker room", "run down the hall", or "get something out of the car" (often-used ploys to enable a cheater to retrieve adulterants or substitutes) before seeing the DTT and providing their specimen.

Getting Caught:

Under U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT aka, "DOT) regulations, DOT-covered employees whose sample is determined to be tampered with are automatically reported as "positive" on their drug test and they must be immediately removed from their positions by their employer. Non-DOT employees are not subject to the same regulation, however, may still be released from their duties depending on the employer's company drug policy.

This year, approximately 2,200,000 drug tests results will come back from the labs reported as "positive" for one or more drugs. A greater percentage of those this year than last year will be from cheaters who tried to "pass" and were not successful. Attempted cheaters will be caught during the specimen collection process or they will be discovered by the lab. As specimen collection procedures and lab analysis technology improves, it will be an even a greater percentage who are caught trying to beat a drug test next year and the next.

Bottom line: If it really is that important to you to get that job or keep that job, the only 100% effective way to pass a drug test is, simply: to be entirely drug-free.  Remember: drug-use is self-abuse!

Pictures of illicit drugs