The times they are a-changing!
With the rapid acceptance of marijuana legalization spreading across America, many businesses are taking a radical step: they are dropping marijuana drug testing from the hiring process.
Though still in its early stages, this process will likely increase rapidly in the future.
You may feel irritated, then, if your potential place of employment still administers drug tests for marijuana. If you’re still considering a job at a place that administers such test, and want to know how to pass an employment drug test, read on.
We’ll discuss how to pass.
What To Know About Drug Tests
There are a wide variety of drug tests administered to check drug use in potential employees. These include urine tests, saliva tests, hair tests, blood tests, and sweat tests.
A urine test is by far the most common and popular of the tests and is most likely the one your employer uses as part of the employee screening process.
Urine testing is sometimes performed at the office. You will take something like these drug tests to the bathroom and return with your result. Some employers may also ask potential employees to go to a 3rd party lab to test their urine, with the lab later sending test results back to the office.
All forms of marijuana– THC, CBD, oils, tincture, and edibles– are detectable on a typical urine drug test. Changing forms of consumption will not help improve your chances of passing, nor will certain strains produce different results.
Other drugs that are typically tested by traditional urine tests include cocaine, amphetamines, opiates, PCP, MDMA, benzodiazepines, and propoxyphene. Cocaine, unlike marijuana, can disappear from the body within 24 hours of use.
How Long Does Marijuana Stay In The Body?
As you probably already know as a frequent marijuana user, the drug can affect different people differently. How long marijuana stays in your body is equally reliant on a number of personal factors.
When you last smoked, as well as how frequently you smoke, are two big factors in how long it may take for traces of THC to leave your body. Your metabolism and body weight are also equally linked to this process, as THC typically stores itself in fat molecules in the body.
On average, traces of marijuana remain in the body of a healthy, normal person for thirty to forty-five days after smoking. If you’re a frequent smoker, this number can get as high as up to ninety days.
While urine tests typically survey the last thirty days of use, other tests, like hair tests, can detect usage back as far as ninety days.
How To Pass An Employment Drug Test
There is a lot of misinformation online and in various smoking communities about how to pass an employment drug test. Many proposed home solutions are not just ineffective, they are often risky and dangerous for your bodily health.
Though you may not like to hear it, the easiest way to pass a drug test is simply by abstaining from drugs in the weeks leading up to the test.
If you’re a few weeks out from urine testing, you should attempt to stop smoking. Drinking plenty of water, exercising, and dieting are all great ways to help cleanse your system of THC leading up to a drug test. As mentioned previously, THC is stored in fat molecules, so this kind of healthy fit behavior can burn fat as well as traces of THC.
There are detoxification programs available online that can help cleanse your body of THC in roughly a week’s time. These programs typically come with home testing kits so you can check your own positive-or-negative status following your completion of the program.
If your test is coming up sooner than a week, you may be more hard-pressed to find a solution for your impending employment drug test. There are detoxification drinks sold online that advertise a cleanse of your body in 24 to 48 hours of consumption. The success rate of these drinks, however, is unclear.
Other Ways To Pass
If you’ve smoked too recently and cleansing is not a realistic option for you, there are a few other ways you can try to pass, as well as some things you should know that do NOT work.
There is a persistent rumor that pouring some soap or bleach in a urine sample will help to dilute signs of THC and create a negative test result. This is simply not true. Not only will pouring in these substances not create the intended result, they will likely change the color or consistency of your urine, creating an instant red flag before the urine is even tested.
Using vinegar, cranberry juice, bleach and other intended adulterants to your urine doesn’t work and is typically risky and dangerous.
What you can attempt to do, if you feel so bold, is to switch out your urine sample with that of a clean friend. This is a trick as old as time, and yet, for some it still proves effective. After all, there is no point in the employment drug testing process that the urine is proved to be that of the employee. This means if you can sneak in a clean sample and present it at general body temperature, there may be a chance that you pass.
You should understand though that there are still huge obstacles in pursuing this path. As a deterrent, many urine testing sessions now begin with a pat-down to check for foreign objects on the body that may contain other’s urine. Many urine tests are now even observed, meaning that someone will watch you pee into a sample cup and ensure it is your own urine in the sample.
If you know ahead of time that you’ll be on your own, a urine swap may be a viable option. If not, it is probably very risky.
There are some products available online intended to help people fake urine samples even while under observation. The most ridiculous and impressive of these is a fake penis that can ‘urinate’ pre-loaded samples into a cup. The success rate of these products is unclear.
The only sure-fire way to pass an employment drug test is to simply stop doing drugs leading up to the test, and drink lots of water.
Looking To The Future
One day in the near future, the increasing legality of marijuana in America may prove drug testing woes to be a thing of the past. In the meantime, we still have to worry about being able to pass an employment drug test.
Want more great weed hacks? Read on for our favorite tips and tricks.