Drug Testing - Information & Discussion

[J]

DETECTION PERIODS
The following chart gives approximate detection periods for each substance by test type. The ranges depend on amount and frequency of use, metabolic rate, body mass, age, overall health, drug tolerance, and urine pH (see alwaystestclean.com for more details):


Cannabis (habitual use):
 - blood: 2 weeks
 - saliva: 12-24 hours
 - urine: up to 12 weeks
 - hair: up to 90 days

Cannabis (single use):
 - blood: 2-3 days
 - saliva: 12-24 hours
 - urine: 2-3 days
 - hair: up to 90 days

Alcohol:
 - urine: 12/24 hours

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TEST SENSITIVITY
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association (SAMHSA) provides guidelines for what qualifies as a positive drug test. If a test does not give results higher than the guidelines, it does not qualify as a "positive" test. If an immunoassay test gives positive results, a second Gas Chromatography test must also give positive results before a result of "positive" is announced. The following chart shows the guidelines by substance.

SUBSTANCE   IMMUNOASSAY   GC / MS
Cannabis          50 ng/ml                15 ng/ml
Cocaine                 300 ng/ml        150 ng/ml
Opiates                  300 ng/ml        300 ng/ml
Amphetamines       1000 ng/m          500 ng/ml
PCP                        25 ng/ml             25 ng/ml

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TEST TYPES
There are five primary types of drug tests: urine, blood, hair, saliva, and sweat. Most common is the urine test which has the benefit of being inexpensive and less intrusive than the blood test.

Urine Tests

    * Are the least expensive of the test methods (~$7-$50 for home version).
    * Are considered an intrusive method of testing.
    * Can be done at home (for example by parents) though require lab verification for accurate results.
    * Detect use primarily within the past week (longer with regular use).
    * Can be affected by abstaining from use for a period of time before the test.
    * Are often temperature tested to insure sample integrity.

Saliva Tests

    * Are a little more expensive than urine testing, but less than hair or blood. (~$15-$75).
    * Are considered a relatively unintrusive method of drug testing.
    * Are becoming more common.
    * Are easy to administer but require lab processing to ensure accuracy.
    * Detect use primarily within the past few days.
    * Can detect more recent use than other testing methods.
    * Have no nationally accepted standards or cutoff concentrations for detection, making results greatly dependent on the specific product purchased. This could also make results less-reliable and/or acceptable for legal cases.
    * More reliable for detection of Methamphetamine and Opiates, less reliable for THC or Cannabinoids (2004).

Hair 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. They can not be done with a single hair.
    * Test positive a little more than twice as often as a urine test. In a recent study, out of 1823 paired hair and urine samples, 57 urine samples tested positive for drugs of abuse; while 124 hair samples from the same group tested positive.
    * 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. Drugs, such as opiates (codeine, morphine, heroin) lay down on the hair shaft very tightly and are shown not to migrate along the shaft, thus, if a long segment of hair is available one can draw some "relative" conclusions about when the use occurred. However cocaine, although very easy to detect, is able to migrate along the shaft; making it very difficult to determine when the drug was used and for how long.
    * Claims to be able to reliably differentiate between opiate and poppy seed use.
    * We've heard that many hair tests now check for more than the NIDA 5, and include at least Cannabis, Ecstasy/MDMA, Cocaine, Opiates, Methamphetamine, Amphetamine, Phencyclidine (PCP), Benzodiazepines, & Barbiturates (2001).

Blood Tests

    * 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).

Sweat (Patch) Tests

    * 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.

[americasmostblunted]

If you are high when you get piss tested you will get caught.

THC stays in your blood for a shorter amount of time than urine, which is why piss tests are more often used.

Most tests are just a dipstick that has 2 lines show up if your negative, 1 line if your positive. 

but there are hundreds of different types.

[illegal smiles]

but can they test to see if you are high at the time they collected the urine?

No, they will not know if you are high or not.  Marijuana metabolites stay in your urine for 2-5 days for a single use.  5-10 days for smoking a few times  a week, and up to 25 days for daily smokers.  They will only see the level of THC in your system, it will not tell them if you are high at the current moment.  Unless of course you reak of pot and your eyes are bloodshot, and you are giggling. LOL. 

My advice - avoid piss tests at all costs.

[J]

well obviously i'd like to avoid them at all costs, that is great advice...  But this question has plagued me since my arrest...  I was high, but not very and i hadn't admitted it to the cop.. He gave me a sobriety test and which he fudged big time, then took me back to the station for fingerprints and whatnot.. while we were there he gave me a piss test.. It took 3 months to get the results back from the state lab, and when they did they convicted me of DWAI... And my eyes werent even red!! did i get assraped or what?

[illegal smiles]

DWAI? 

[J]

Driving While Ability Impaired by drug/alchohol. 

For example if you blow a .08 you get a DWI - everyone knows this

But what most ppl odn't know is if you blow anything from a .04 - .07 - thats a DWAI, but the punishment is almost the same.

So its the lesser of the 2 DWI convictions, but i was arrested november 2004 and i still don't have my license back, plus it cost me about $2G...

In essence its bullshit... But my BAC was .00 it was just the weed they were concerned with..

[illegal smiles]

Damn that is horrible.   

Its insane, even if you weren't high and they tested you, and you hadn't smoked for a week, you probably would have gotten the same thing.  How fucked up is that?  You can smoke and then a week later get pulled over and tested and you get a DWAI.  When do you get your license back?

Why did you get pulled over?  Why did you get taken to the station? 

[J]

Yeah essentially that is true, i could get pulled over after 2 weeks of not smoking and essentially still get busted... I was pulled over for loud exhaust (stupid ass reason to get busted, i kick myself for it) they immediately began asking me about pot, my friend who was with me had 2 bowls on him.. The one cop was talking to me, and the other to him (i had been in this situation 100 times before [i have bad luck with the law] so i knew how to handle myself)  So the cop asks him why his eyes are red.. He responds "Because i'm tired..".. now thats just a dead giveaway, so then he found his bowls, then had reason to search the car, found MY bowl, thats when he gave me the sobriety test.. But i know fuckin dam well that i didn't fail that test, there is NO WAY.... but its their word against mine... 

Well this is where the BS starts getting thick.. The court SUSPENDS my license for 90 days or until i complete DDP (the drunk driver program) So for 7 consecutive tuesday nights i go to DDP, i finish it, DMV tells me i have to wait the full 90 days... So i do, then they tell me i have to wait 9 months on top of that, so i do, THEN they tell me that my license was actually REVOKED so i have to wait for Albany to approve my application, then take my 5 hour course and my road test... AGAIN!!!  WTF?

thats why ii say FUCK THE POLICE (and the DMV) hehe

[candyandy]

piss tests fucking suck! when i was in my senior year i was a runningback for my varsity team and we had a suprise piss test.i had just smoked a week earlier and i got kicked off the team and had to pay $1000 and had to do 200 hours of community service.

[illegal smiles]

wow that is complete bullshit.  i hate the pigs a lot, but damn man, i cant imagine how much you hate them.

[candyandy]

it wasnt just them it was my coach and my dean to.the dean is a real bitch she went through all my stuff

[illegal smiles]

piss tests fucking suck! when i was in my senior year i was a runningback for my varsity team and we had a suprise piss test.i had just smoked a week earlier and i got kicked off the team and had to pay $1000 and had to do 200 hours of community service.

Because that is going to stop you from smoking marijuana. 

Sucks ass that you had to pay a grand and do all that community service.

[jo_cheeba]

can you trick drug tests? _____lots of water? cranberry juice? maybe that idea with the  water with a drop of bleach (if it doesnt kill you first)?

[J]

yeah i just bring clean piss now thats how i trick it lol

[btmystery]

Drink Drink Drink, thats the only sure fire way to pass a piss test, you can make those detox drinks that they sell at home, just drink like a gallon of water the night before your test, and then another shit load of water a eat as much food as you can a 3 hours before your test, then drink a rock star about an hour before and good luck not pissin your pants. or get fake piss or clean piss from some one else.