How Drug Tests Work | How Can I Pass A Drug Test.

How Drug Tests Work

Basically there is little difference between a blood, urine or a saliva analysis. They all look for small concentrations of contaminates, called metabolites, that can be used to determine which specific products have been used.

The body naturally stores metabolites in the fatty cells and fast growing cells in your body. These metabolites leach out into the blood over time and are expelled mostly through the urinary tract.

Metabolites stay in the fat for different periods of time causing you to fail an analysis many weeks or months in the future. Your fat content, activity level and your metabolism all have a major impact on how long chemicals can be detected in your system.

Being your hair is a fast growing tissue it also stores metabolites. This is why a hair analysis can detect metabolites for an extended period of time. Trace amounts of metabolites become entrapped in the core of the hair as it grows out from the body. These metabolite residues cannot be washed, bleached or flushed out of the hair follicles and are stable over a long period of time. It takes approximately 5 days for metabolites to show up in a person's hair. Contaminates in your system do not stay permanently. You might want to check out how long each toxin remains in your system in our Drug Detection Times.

The Tests

There is no perfect drug testing method and, like most things in life, each method has some advantages and disadvantages. What makes a drug testing method good or not good is more related to the needs of the testing entity

Urine Drug Testing

The urine test is highly accurate at showing many drugs of abuse, prescriptions drugs and/or over-the-counter medications used within a specific timeframe. There are many ways to prepare for a urine test depending on how much time you have before your test and the amount and type of contaminates in your body. Click here for more detailed information on Urine Drug Tests.

are the least expensive of the test methods (~$7-$50 for home version).
can be done at home though require lab verification for accurate results.
can detect use primarily within the past week (longer with regular use).
be affected by abstaining from use for a period of time before the test.
re often temperature tested to insure sample integrity.

Pros: Urine drug test kits are available as on-site tests, or laboratory analysis. Referred to as "the gold standard", urinalysis is the most common test type and used by federally mandated drug testing programs.

Cons: The main disadvantages of urine-based drug test kits is are (1.) the ease at which they can be "cheated" via sample adulteraion or substitution, unless specimen collection is directly observed, (2.) inability to detect current / on-the-job drug abuse, and (3.) the need for bathroom facilities.

Hair Drug Testing

Hair drug testing can not only show general drug usage, but potentially when the drug was used and the quantity of the drug used. This drug detection period can also stretch to potentially many months or even years. A Hair Drug Test is also accurate at showing many prescription drugs, drugs of abuse or over-the-counter products used within a window of time.

Most facilities only use hair within about 3 - 5 cm of the scalp, and discard the rest. This limits the detection history to about 90 days. Some people attempt to circumvent this through shaving their heads. Well, any body hair can be used as an acceptable substitute. Click here for more detailed information on Hair Drug Tests.

are currently several times more expensive than urine tests (~$100-$150).
are considered a relatively unintrusive method of drug testing.
detect substance use over a longer period (see detection period).
do not usually detect use within the past week.
require a sample of hair about the diameter of a pencil and 1.5 inches long.
test positive a little more than twice as often as a urine test.
are not significantly affected by brief periods of abstinence from drugs.
can sometimes be used to determine when use occured and if it has been discontinued.

Pros: Hair Drug Testing kits have a very long drug detection window. For most drugs it can detect drug use about 90 days or more. This testing method is very donor friendly. Adulteration is a lot more difficult in hair drug testing than any other test method. The hair test is very dependable and accurate.

Cons: The main disadvantages of hair drug testing is the fact that you need a lab to run the test and generate the results, and it can only detect historical drug use. Hair drug test kits are usually the most expensive drug test kits due to the need for lab testing. Also, subjects may easily avoid detection of past drug use by shaving off hair. Lastly, drug abusers with darker hair provide a higher rate of positives.

Blood Drug Testing

Most often blood drug tests are ordered by insurance companies when the requested benefit is above a certain threshold. These testing thresholds are based on the likelihood that the customer may get sick or die. These thresholds are established by the insurance companies.

are the most expensive method of testing.
are considered the most intrusive method of testing.
are the most accurate method of testing.
are the least common method of testing (most likely due to cost).

Click here for more detailed information on Blood Drug Tests.

Saliva Drug Test.

Saliva drug testing is accurate at showing many prescription drugs, drugs of abuse or over-the-counter products. Saliva drug testing is easy to administer and detection times are generally short. Saliva drug testing is becoming more common in the workplace. Of the United States companies that drug test, twenty percent test both urine and hair and thirty percent use saliva drug testing.

are considered a relatively intrusive method of drug testing because they require the wearing of a patch for an extended period of time.
are still relatively uncommon.
are controversial in terms of accuracy. There is some reason to believe that surface contamination (such as cannabis smoke) can cause a false reading.

Can detect use which would not trigger other tests. Because of the short detection period for many drugs in urine, single use of many drugs longer than a week prior to using the patch will not cause a positive urine test. Because the skin patches are gathering sweat over an extended period of time, it is possible that any use during that time will produce a positive result.

Click here for more detailed information on Saliva Drug Tests.

Drug Test Information

Over 81% of all companies surveyed perform some kind of analysis to determine whether you are a user and possible hazard to their company.

The First Type Of Analysis and Most Popular is for Urine. Known as urinalysis, this procedure requires a sample of ones urine. Either a special card is used for immediate results or the sample is sent away to undergo more complex testing at some lab.

Why Masking And All The Other Myths Do Not Work.

Sample substitutions or adulterations have become a significant issue due to the prevalence of synthetic and/or clean urine and a wide range of adulterants on the internet. One of the methods to check for adulterants is to add some amount of an actual substance to a small portion of the sample and then recheck that portion. If a masking agent is present in the urine, the resulting urinalysis will have a negative result despite the fact that a substance was added. You just failed.

Some diuretics and herbal extracts, such as goldenseal, are marketed as a quick "detox" from controlled substances, but their effectiveness is very questionable. Many types of urinalysis can detect the use of these "detox" products. You are taking a big risk. Click here for Drug Test Myths.

These Products Are All Detectable - Don't Take A Chance

Mary Jane Super Clean 13 (Liquid Soap)

Urinaid (Glutaraldehyde)

THC Free (Acid)

Klear (Nitrite)

Urine Luck (Pyridinium Chlorochromate)

TestKlear

Golden Seal

Terminator Gold

Stealth

Clean-X

Instant Clean