How Have People Tried to Pass Their Drug Tests in the Past (Often Unsuccessfully)?
Here are some of the most popular methods for beating drug tests that you should avoid.
You hear them everywhere: tips, tricks, and hacks for passing a drug test, even if you’re not drug free. Some people swear by these methods. Unfortunately, no matter how much they get repeated, and how “foolproof” they seem, a lot of them just don’t work. Here are some of the most popular methods for beating drug tests that you should not rely on.
- Niacin. Commonly used to improve cholesterol levels and treat heart disease, L. Ron Hubbard suggested, with no evidence, that Niacin could also be used to remove toxins from the body. Over time, legends grew, and people began thinking this detoxing ability would remove drugs from your system. However, Niacin’s actual effect is to increase good cholesterol, which removes bad cholesterol from the body. It doesn’t remove any other toxins, and won’t help you pass a drug test. Furthermore, taking Niacin without a prescription can result in a number of serious side effects, from increased heartrate to burning skin to liver damage.
- Vinegar. Some say if you drink vinegar, it will fool a drug test into coming up negative. In actuality, all it does is change your urine’s pH balance from basic to acidic. If there are drugs in your system, they’ll still show up. In fact, some believe that the increased acidity may even increase the saturation of drugs in your system.
- Fruit and Caffeine. Many fruits have diuretic properties—as does caffeine. The theory is, by eating fruit or drinking coffee, it can help you flush out the drugs in advance of the test. This isn’t the case. Neither fruit nor caffeine has any noticeable effect on your drug test.
- Bleach. It goes without saying that you should NEVER drink or consume bleach. However, some believe that adding bleach to your urine sample once it’s in the cup, can change its chemical makeup and neutralize any drugs. It’s true that it will alter your urine somewhat. However, bleach has a very high pH number. If your urine’s pH was actually that high, you’d be dead—which is a dead giveaway to any test administrator that you’ve added bleach to try to game the system. In fact, even before they test your urine, they’ll likely be able to smell the bleach. It’s exceedingly unlikely that anyone with bleach in their urine will be able to fool a drug test
- Goldenseal. A common health supplement, it’s great for treating indigestion and inflammation. It’s completely useless for passing a drug test.
- Water. This one has merit, but it’s often used incorrectly. We’ve talked before about how dilution works: drink a lot of water, two hours before your drug test, and it will dilute your urine so that the drugs don’t show up. Unfortunately, it dilutes everything else in your urine as well, including the things that are supposed to be there. This makes it obvious to a drug test that your urine has been diluted, and you won’t pass the test. If you’re going to use water, add salt and B vitamins to it, to help it test normally.
- Aspirin. Taking a large dose of aspirin before a drug test can help you to test negative. However, the procedure to make it work properly is very exacting, and won’t work if it’s not followed properly. And even when it does work, it’s only effective on immunoassay tests. Drugs will still show up in a lab test. Furthermore, the high concentrations of aspirin in your urine will show up on the test, which is likely to raise suspicion, causing the test administrators to call for a lab test instead. Finally, taking large quantities of aspirin can cause serious illness and even death. For something that’s only effective a small amount of the time, it’s not worth the risk.
These are just a few of the ways that people try—and fail—to pass their drug tests. It’s important to know what works and what doesn’t, what’s safe and what’s not, and whom you can trust to help you pass your test effectively. We are your trusted source for passing a drug test.