The excuses are pretty lame, from "I ate a poppy seed bagel on the way to work" to "I didn't inhale," but there may be ways to successfully get around mandatory drug testing at work. Abstinence is the most obvious and reliable method of passing the test, but if weekend fun (or habitual use) rules that out, don't give up hope quite yet.
Myths about ways to get around a drug test are rampant. Athletes facing the possibility of getting kicked off teams have been known to smuggle in clean urine samples and pass them off as their own. Some drink mass amounts of water to flush the drugs out of their system or shell out big bucks to buy "detoxifying" drinks.
Employers are free to require drug testing before hiring a candidate for a position, and also allow for random drug testing of current employees, according to the 988 Drug-Free Work Place Act. For the most part, employers will use basic tests, unless a more inclusive test is believed to be necessary. Basic tests screen for Amphetamines (speed, meth, ecstasy), Cannabinoids (marijuana, hash), cocaine (coke, crack), Opiates (heroin, morphine, opium, codeine), and Phencyclidine (PCP).
So how can you avoid being fired from your job or not obtaining a job because of drug use? The Internet offers a slew of detoxifying mixtures and pills, but it's tough to say which are legitimate and which are a waste of money.
At www.testingclean.com, detoxification methods are customized for specific conditions - such as what type of test is going to be given and how long you have before you are going to be tested. For example, if you have one week or more until your test, you can participate in what the website claims is "permanent" detoxification. According to the site, the method does not simply mask toxins; it actually cleanses your system of them. After completing this process, the site promises negative test results (urine, blood, and saliva) permanently, or until you next use the drug.
The permanent method takes into consideration your usage level, and the product prices range in accordance. For example, the "x-treme" user is described as using the drug a few times a day and can be toxin-free in six days for $125. The "seek-n-destroy" package is for the lightest user, one who uses the drug less than once every week, and costs $59 to be toxin-free in three days. The site even offers a package geared toward cigarette smokers that claims to rid the system of nicotine.
For the permanent test, the user must take pills, drink a specific liquid, and stay on a certain diet.
If you have less than a week to rid your system of toxins, the website offers temporary detoxification, which cleans up your urine - and only urine - for five to six hours. After that, the toxins will reappear in your system. Both the temporary and permanent methods claim to be legal, natural dietary supplements.
Most websites that offer products to pass drug tests aren't quite as elaborate as testingclean.com. Herbalremedies.com, for example, simply offers fruity drinks that claim to rid your system of toxins and shampoo that "removes residues and toxins" from your hair follicles within ten minutes. While it doesn't cater toward the specific needs of the user, the website does feature non-fat detox shakes that you can order in your choice of flavors.
There are several ways to test for drug use, from sweat patches to hair follicle testing, but the most commonly used method is the urine sample. This test is the least expensive, least invasive, and is effective in testing for recent and infrequent use - something that some of the more sophisticated tests do not prove. The test can be used to show traces of drugs as well as the metabolites that particular drugs produce.
However, urine tests are not the most accurate form of testing. A positive finding needs to be backed up by a more sophisticated test, and the results of a urine test will not hold up in court.
And the rumor that poppy seeds can lead to false positives for opiates in urine tests is right. But if poppy seed muffins are your breakfast food of choice, don't sweat it - although the test will detect a low level of opiates in your system, it will be well under the cut-off level for habitual use. On the other hand, if you were planning on using the "I just ate a poppy seed bagel" excuse to explain the positive test, you might find yourself up a creek without a paddle. Employers are not likely to believe that you eat a dozen poppy seed bagels every morning.
To prevent tampering, some employers have subjects urinate in a "dry" room - a room without running water - or a bathroom that has colored water flowing from its faucet. Others still may have an escort "supervise" you while collecting your specimen, which opens up questions of invasion of privacy. But there is reason behind the embarrassment, as urine tests are among the easiest to alter.
Blood testing, the most accurate test, is also the most expensive and invasive. Random drug tests aren't likely to be blood tests; they are primarily used in accident investigations and for health insurance or life insurance exams.
Many employers are most curious about marijuana use by their employees, as it is one of the more common drugs and easier to hide than other drugs. Because blood testing cannot detect marijuana after 22 hours, the test is not the most useful for many employers.
Hair follicle testing is a relatively new technique for detecting drug use, and its results are much more difficult to skew than a urine analysis. A one-inch hair sample can detect the use of drugs within the past two months. While the test is more accurate than the urine test, the follicle test does not always show recent use.
The FDA recently approved the use of a sweat patch to detect drug use, and, while the patch is tamper proof, this method is not widely used yet. For the most part, the patch is used to monitor people on parole or probation.
