Drug Testing - Cannabis Testing Tips

 

Drug Testing

Process urinalysis in a short time:

While goMDnow is strongly against drug use at work, we believe no one should be forced to undergo a urine test, especially marijuana. Aside from legal challenges, your best defense against a urine test is to stay clean. Unfortunately, this can be difficult as urine tests may detect marijuana 1-5 days after occasional use, 1-3 weeks in regular users, and 4-6 weeks with multiple daily use. Since urine tests do not detect marijuana's psychoactive component, THC, but other inactive metabolites, they will never measure damage; however, in today's drug hysteria, this fact is irrelevant to employers. If you're in the job market, it's prudent to expect to get tested and avoid marijuana use. However, recognizing that many of you may face drug testing at short notice, we offer the following advice for emergencies with our best wishes.

Don't rely on excuses:

Although a urine test is far from foolproof, it is difficult to challenge a positive test result. "False positives," where workers are falsely accused of marijuana use, are very unlikely, as long as the lab is properly cared for (however, not all labs do this). The standard procedure is to first screen the sample using an immunoassay test, such as EMIT® or RIA®, and then confirm a positive result using the more accurate gas chromatography mass spectrometer (GCMS). This effectively eliminates the chance of false positives in exchange for a relatively high rate of "false negatives," where drug use is not detected. The sensitivity of the test depends on the metabolite concentration it is set to detect: for DOT, the standard cutoff is 50 nanograms per milliliter.

Wash yourself clean:

The general strategy for passing a urine test is to increase your fluid intake and urine flow in order to dilute the drug concentration in the sample below the detection threshold. An hour or two before the test, you should fill your bladder with fluids - drink as much water as possible. Water is fine - Contrary to popular myth, there's no evidence that begonia, vinegar, niacin, or vitamin C helps. However, high-dose aspirin may reduce the sensitivity of the EMIT urine test to can (only). Many people wash their bodies a few days in advance by drinking heavily and exercising, but there's no reason to think that's helpful. Under no circumstances should you take your first urine in the morning, as drug metabolites tend to build up during your sleep.

When you drink a lot of water before your test, you may also need to take a high dose (50-100 mg) of vitamin B2, which is available in the form of B-complex vitamins. The purpose of this is to give your urine a yellow color, otherwise you may have clear, watery urine, which will make some collectors suspicious (contrary to rumors, vitamin C won't help). In rare cases, some laboratories will reject samples because they are too watery. However, in this case, they usually give you a second chance. Wait until your test results are confirmed before indulging in compromising behavior.

Drug Screen?

It has been suggested that ingesting certain substances may alter body chemistry to mask drug use. While there are many products currently being marketed as head-store drug screens, High Times advertisements, etc., few have any solid scientific basis. Activated charcoal is a common antidote and may help reduce metabolite levels in long-term users if taken over a few days or weeks. It has been theoretically suggested that lecithin, a food emulsifier, may also be useful if taken for extended periods of time, but this has not been proven. Many high-priced herbal teas and powders are advertised as urine cleansers with no good medical basis. While some users report that they have had significant success using them, many others have not. Independent experiments suggest that water dilution, rather than the screen itself, may be responsible for the success.

Tampering:

While urine dilution is useful, it's not 100% reliable, especially for a large number of everyday users. Another method some people use is to tamper with samples by adding adulterants or substituting clean urine for their own. Ethical issues aside, tampering is risky, as subjects may be observed or undressed beforehand, and cheating is unforgivable. For the adventurous, Abbie Hoffman's book Steal This Urine Test has full instructions on how to dress yourself up in a plastic bag in place of clean urine. You can buy clean dehydrated urine from Byrd Labs. Note, however, that the laboratory checks to make sure the urine sample is at the correct temperature (approximately 91-97°).

Blood Test:

In some cases, including accidents and roadside sobriety checks, a blood test may be used. Blood tests detect the actual THC present in the system; however, they may also be sensitive to other metabolites. Blood tests are usually registered