Home Remedies for Passing Drug Tests – the Good, Bad, & Just Plain UGLY

Home remedies for passing drug tests sound good, but do they really work…? Well, it depends on the remedy you’re considering. Some are definitely effective to one degree or another, but some are only urban legends gone horribly, horribly wrong. Here’s some information to help you sift through all the myths about home remedies for passing drug tests.

Any discussion about how to pass a drug test should start with the basics, which is that THC metabolites are stored in your body’s fat cells. Over time your body just naturally cycles them out, and they get flushed out in your urine. Every time you smoke you’re putting more metabolites into your fat cells, but at the same time they’re always leaving your body when you pee. Remember this, because these basic facts help to explain how some of the most persistent myths about home remedies for passing drug tests got started in the first place.

Home Remedies for Passing Drug Tests That Actually Work (More or Less)

1. Water

No doubt you’ve heard about dilution for passing a urine drug test. It’s true that it will help you pass, but probably not the way you think it will. The information you’ll see being passed around about dilution is that you have to start drinking as much water as you can for days, or even weeks, before your drug test. WRONG. What you really have to do is drink as much water as you can during the few hours right before your test. By overloading your kidneys in a short time frame, you dilute your urine to the point where there aren’t enough THC metabolites in it to register on a test.

Dilution is the method by which commercial detox drinks work, but I included it here because it’s so easy to do the same thing at home. You just have to take some common supplements that make your urine appear to be undiluted. These are the same supplements that are in detox drinks, but they’re much cheaper (and usually more reliable) if you buy them yourself. Of all the home remedies for passing drug tests that are out there, dilution is by far the one that’s most likely to actually help you pass a drug test (assuming you’re getting a urine test, that is).

2. Diuretics

Diuretics by themselves are useless for passing a drug test. But when you combine them with dilution, then you’ve got a winning combo. In order to really get your urine clear of THC metabolites you’ve not only got to drink a lot of fluids, you’ve also got to pee a lot to flush them out of your system quickly. Diuretics aren’t necessarily a requirement for how to pass a drug test using dilution, but they can be a big help.

3. Cranberry Juice/Capsules

Cranberry is a mild diuretic, so it can be helpful for the same reason as any diuretic is. Somehow it’s reached a legendary status as the Big Daddy of home remedies for passing drug tests, but believe me – there’s nothing magical about cranberry juice. If the only thing you do to pass a urine test is take cranberry capsules or drink cranberry juice, it just ain’t gonna be enough. But – combined with dilution, cranberry can be very helpful.

4. Exercising

To get rid of fat you exercise, right? And since THC metabolites are stored in fat cells, losing weight (real weight, not just water weight from taking diuretics) helps you cut down on the amount of metabolites your body stores at any given time. The problem with this, though, is that it takes a long time to lose a significant amount of weight. If by some wild chance you have so much advance notice that you could work on losing weight in order to pass a drug test, why put yourself through all that stress? You could just quit smoking pot altogether for 4-8 weeks and you’d be clean anyway. But one really good argument for losing weight is that the less body fat you have, the less time it takes for THC metabolites to leave your system after you quit smoking.

Whatever you do, don’t go overboard with exercising in the week just prior to your test – losing weight at that time will work against you, since it means more metabolites are being flushed out of your system than you might want on your test day. However, if you already work out regularly then you don’t need to stop. Exercise won’t cause you to lose weight (and fat cells) if you’re already pretty fit to begin with.

Home Remedies for Passing Drug Tests That Definitely DON’T Work

1. Niacin

This myth seems to have started as a result of a book written in the ’70s by L. Ron Hubbard, called ‘Clear Body, Clear Mind’. In case you don’t recognize his name, L. Ron Hubbard was the founder of the controversial  Church of Scientology. In his book, Hubbard (who didn’t have any medical or nutritional training, by the way) laid out a detoxification program that he claimed would help people get rid of all the toxins in their bodies, including prescription and non-prescription drugs, and pesticides. Niacin was one of the things he recommended. Somewhere along the line, someone trying to pass a drug test probably just thought Niacin = Detox, and the legend began.

Of all the home remedies for passing drug tests you’ll hear about, taking massive doses of niacin is by far the most dangerous. Our bodies only need about 15mg per day. People trying to pass drug tests commonly take 50-100 times the recommended daily dose, which can cause permanent damage to your liver. Just google ‘niacin poisoning’ to read about people who have ended up in emergency rooms from a niacin overdose.

If you’re thinking about using niacin to pass a drug test, here is the bottom line: small doses help to detox your liver – but since THC metabolites are stored in your fat cells, not your liver, that means niacin is absolutely useless for passing a drug test for marijuana.

2. Vinegar

The only thing vinegar does is change the PH of your urine, if you add it to your urine after you pee. I’m not too sure how this one got started. At any rate, it’s one more home remedy that’s totally useless for passing a drug test, since current testing methods routinely check for this adulterant.

3. Bleach

Another adulterant that labs routinely test for. Maybe this one got started when someone had the bright idea of ‘cleaning’ their urine. I’m going to guess that many years ago (before drug testing labs got savvy) someone passed their test this way, and even though modern test methods can detect common adulterants like this today, for some reason it’s a myth that just won’t die. Whatever you do, don’t be stupid enough to actually drink it. Miniscule amounts are safe for purifying drinking water in an emergency, but it’s easy to go overboard.

4. Phenylpropanolamine

Phenylpropanolamine was the active ingredient in an over-the-counter appetite suppressant called Dexatrim. You can’t get phenylpropanolamine without a prescription any longer, since it apparently made your heart beat erratically and increased your risk of stroke. The dangers aside, it isn’t any good for passing a drug test anyway. Vets use it today to help prevent incontinence in aging dogs. In other words, it’s used to help dogs stop peeing. The exact opposite of what you want if you’re going to flush THC from your urine. Another one of those home remedies for passing drug tests that are not only useless, but dangerous.

5. Goldenseal

Goldenseal was never effective for helping anyone pass a urine test for weed, however it was somewhat effective for helping people pass tests for other classes of drugs, like opiates. Which is why labs routinely test for it now, so don’t even go there.

6. Certo (Also Known As Sure Jell)

I saved the best for last: the ever-popular Certo Method For Passing a Drug Test. Certo and Sure Jell are brand names for pectin, which is a gelling agent made from plants and it’s used to make things like jam (so you can spread jam on your toast with a knife, instead of pouring it on like syrup). Pectin is technically a dietary fiber, and it passes through your intestines more or less intact (in other words, your body doesn’t absorb it).

The legend goes like this: Certo coats your stomach, which is somehow supposed to prevent THC metabolites from getting into your urine. This theory falls apart when you realize that metabolites are cycled out of your body through your kidneys, when you pee. Last I checked, your stomach isn’t in any way connected to your kidneys, so as far as home remedies to pass a drug test go, I give this one the award for being the silliest.

I can see why people get fooled into thinking this works, though. If you read on a forum where someone is giving instructions on how to pass a urine test this way, they ALWAYS include drinking lots of water along with the Certo / Sure-Jell. So if you pass, it’s because you diluted, not because you used Certo. And if you’re lucky enough to be tested in a lab that doesn’t perform authenticity tests for dilution, I can see why someone would think that Certo helped them pass their drug test. Problem is, most labs do check for dilution, so more people fail using this method than are actually helped by it.

There are definitely home remedies for passing drug tests that will help you, but the reality is that most of what you’ll hear about is based on rumors and myths passed around by people who either got lucky, or are just repeating something they heard. It is absolutely possible to pass a drug test, but you should gather all the information you can and use your common sense before deciding on which method to use.

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