How to pass a drug test

With an increasing number of employers, parents, and government agencies screening for drugs, it’s important to protect your body and your privacy.

Clear Test can help you learn how to pass a drug test so you can protect your job and your way of life. Whether you’re trying to eliminate traces of marijuana, cocaine, opiates, or prescription drugs, we have products that can help you get a clean result.

In order to beat your upcoming drug test, you should first familiarize yourself with the types you might be subject to, how long drugs will stay in your system, and the methods and products available to help you pass a test.

Types of Drug Tests

Here are a few of the tests you might encounter:

Hair Follicle

The hair follicle drug test involves the analysis of a small sample of your hair, usually collected close to the scalp. This test can detect minute traces of drug residue, which are transported into hair follicles via the bloodstream and can remain there even after repeated washes.

For this reason, hair drug tests are a reliable way to see long-term usage of a drug and not just recent usage. Due to their expense, however, they aren’t very common for workplace testing and instead are normally used in court trials where a history of abuse might need to be proven.

Blood

Blood tests are an incredibly accurate form of drug tests which simply take a blood sample from the subject and analyze it for traces in a laboratory. Although they are reliable, drugs are eliminated from the bloodstream more quickly than any other part of the body, and these tests often only detect usage from the last 24-48 hours, at most.

Unfortunately, it’s incredibly difficult to fool a blood test, but their limited testing window means a day or two of abstinence is usually sufficient to pass them. They’re also expensive and not widely used for large-scale testing in workplaces, and they are mostly used by law enforcement in the event of a recent crime or traffic accident.

Saliva

Saliva swabs are cheap, quick, and easy to administer, making them a popular choice for workplaces that are looking for near-instant results—at the start of shift work, for example.

Similar to blood tests, drugs leave saliva fairly quickly, so an employer wanting lengthier drug use history would probably turn to a hair or urine drug test. They’re also prone to inaccuracies and false positives, such as when alcoholic mouthwash has been used, and they are much easier to fool as a result.

Urine

Urine screenings are the most invasive but also the most commonly administered form of drug test. Their popularity among American employers is due to their relative affordability, speed, and accuracy. A urine sample can provide results the same day and detect earlier drug use than saliva or blood tests, normally for much cheaper than a blood or hair test.

There are two main types of urine tests: immunoassay and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The first is much quicker and slightly less reliable, but it is almost always used as the initial test. A GC-MS drug test is slower and almost totally accurate, and it is normally only performed if there are irregularities with your first test or to confirm a positive reading.

How Long Do Drugs Stay in Your System?

Every drug is different and will remain in your system for different lengths of time. It also depends on what type of test is performed. Most drugs are passed rapidly out of the blood, for example, but may leave traces in your hair for three or more months.

For urine drug tests, which are the most common form in the workplace, you can take the following as basic guidelines for detectability:

• Alcohol: Up to 12 hours for an occasional drinker; up to 7 days for a heavy drinker
• Marijuana: Up to 5 days for an occasional smoker; up to 30 days for a heavy smoker
• MDMA (Ecstasy): Up to 4 days
• Cocaine: Up to 2 days for an occasional user; up to 4 days for a heavy user
• Heroin: Up to 4 days

Note that the length of time a drug remains in your system also depends on your body’s natural ability to flush it out. This can be affected by your age, weight, metabolism, and diet, all to varying degrees.

Methods of Passing a Drug Test

There are four main methods of dealing with drug tests and ensuring that you can reliably pass:

• Minimize – The more you use drugs, the longer they will stay in your system. You don’t necessarily have to quit, but cutting down to only light usage will make the drugs flush themselves out more quickly.
• Wait – It seems obvious, but make sure time is on your side when attempting a drug test. If there is a known test upcoming, take a sick day, if you can, or otherwise delay the test so you can wait for the drugs to leave your body naturally.
• Cleanse – Depending on the test, there may be ways to cleanse the body of residual drugs. Detox drinks and formulas can help speed the elimination of drugs, making you cleaner quicker for blood and urine tests, while other products like shampoo and mouthwash are good for hair and saliva tests.
• Substitute – Although only useful for urine analysis, substituting a clean sample for a positive sample is a simple yet highly effective way of passing a drug test.

If you’re not sure whether you’re ready to pass the drug test, a good way to check is with a home test kit.

Don’t Believe the Myths

Although you might read of dozens of other methods online, those four really are the only way to pass a drug test. Don’t believe commonly perpetuated stories like cranberry juice, niacin, excessive water, or even adding bleach to the sample. These simply won’t work, and they often raise a red flag to testers. If you want to reliably pass a drug test, you’ll need tried-and-tested products to help you.