Home remedies to pass a drug test sound good, but how well do they really work…? Well, it all 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 to pass a drug test.

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 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 to pass a drug test got started in the first place.

Home Remedies to Pass a Drug Test That Actually Work (More or Less)

1. Water

No doubt you’ve heard about dilution for passing a drug test. Well, it’s true that it will help you pass, but not the way you might think. The information that gets passed around about it is that you have to start drinking as much water as you can every day for a week (or a month, etc.) before your test. WRONG. What you have to do is drink as much water as you can in the few hours right before your test. By overloading your kidneys this way, it dilutes your urine to the point that there aren’t enough THC metabolites in it to register on a test. You also have to take some common supplements that make your urine appear to be undiluted, because labs are onto this method. But of all the home remedies to pass a drug test out there, this is the one that’s the most likely to actually help you pass a drug test (as long as you’re getting a urine test, that is).

2. Diuretics

Diuretics by themselves are pretty 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 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. Diuretics aren’t necessarily a requirement for how to pass a drug test using dilution, but they can 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 reached a legendary status as the Big Daddy of Home Remedies to Pass a Drug Test, but believe me - there’s nothing magical about it. If all you do is take cranberry capsules or drink cranberry juice, it just ain’t gonna be enough to help you pass a urine test.

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. So unless you’ve got plenty of advance notice, exercising just won’t help you pass a urine test. If you have enough time before your test to lose a lot of weight, then you could also just stop smoking altogether and you’d have time to get clean without all that work.

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 don’t stop. Exercise doesn’t cause you to lose weight (and fat cells) if you’re already pretty fit to begin with.

Home Remedies to Pass a Drug Test That Definitely DON’T Work

1. Niacin

This myth got started back in the 1970s (at least - maybe even earlier), when L. Ron Hubbard wrote a book about how to ‘purify’ the body. In case you don’t recognize the name, he was the founder of Scientology. He never had any medical training, he just read some books (or had a ‘vision’ or something) about the properties of various vitamins and the conclusion he came to was that niacin was basically a cure for everything from the common cold to cancer. The book he wrote wasn’t about how to pass a drug test, it was about how drug addicts (and others) could cleanse toxins out of their body (and it’s pretty outdated now anyway).

Of all the home remedies to pass a drug test you’ll come across, this one is probably the most dangerous. A niacin overdose can cause permanent damage to major organs, and even death. That red flush you get when you take it, and the itchy, crawly sensation you feel on your skin, isn’t doing a damn thing to prevent THC metabolites from showing up in your urine.

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. 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 to pass a drug test 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 pretty much always include drinking lots of water along with it. So if you’re lucky enough to be tested in a lab that doesn’t perform authenticity tests for dilution, and you actually pass, it’s understandable that you’d want to share the good news with every pot smoker you know. Problem is, most labs do check for dilution, so more people fail using this method than are actually helped by it.

So there ya have it. Home Remedies To Pass a Drug Test 101. You should be in good shape now to pass a pop quiz on how to pass a drug test. :-)

Worried about passing a urine test? Find the answer here.

Passing a drug test when you don’t have a lot of notice beforehand can be tough, but it’s definitely not impossible. If you’re a daily smoker then it’s a sure bet you won’t have time to get clean just by abstaining for a while, but what if you don’t smoke all that often? Just how long does marijuana stay in your system, and do you even need to worry? Here are some basic facts, along with some solutions, about passing a drug test.

First off, some basic science about the effect marijuana has on your body. THC metabolites, which is what testing labs will be looking for in a urine test, are stored in your fat cells. They’re NOT stored in your liver, they’re NOT stored in your kidneys, and they’re not stored in any other major body organ - just your fat cells. But over time, they get processed through your body and then are eliminated through your kidneys, just like many other kinds of toxins and chemicals that we ingest. Any discussion about how to pass a drug test has to start with the facts, and now you know.

To illustrate what this means for you, let’s use an example of Smoker A and Smoker B. They both smoke the exact amount of weed everyday, and the exact same grade. And since they’re both smokers, they’re both looking for info on passing a drug test. Will the exact same method work for both of them equally? Very unlikely, and I’ll explain why…

Let’s say Smoker A is a sports freak who works out every day of the week. He runs, lifts weights, goes rock climbing, the works. This guy is a total hardbody without an ounce of extra fat on him. Smoker B works at a desk all day, and when he goes home his favorite sport is smoking a bowl while sitting on the couch and watching TV until bedtime. Over the years he’s slowly put on a few extra pounds (okay, probably more than a few).

Are you starting to guess where this is going…? It’s not rocket science. Smoker A doesn’t have very many fat cells where THC metabolites can hide out, so they’re constantly being filtered through his body and being excreted through his urine. If he completely stopped smoking today, he’d probably be clean in 10 days to 2 weeks, even though he’s a daily smoker. He still has to worry about passing a drug test on short notice, but if he has any kind of advance notice at all he can pass a urine test just by abstaining for a while.

But things aren’t so simple for Smoker B. Because he’s got quite a few extra fat cells where THC can plant itself, it takes a lot longer for it to cycle out of his body and into his urine. For him, passing a drug test means it’s definitely time for panic mode. Depending on how much extra weight he’s carrying, if he stopped smoking today it could be anywhere from 1 to 2 months before he’s able to pass his drug test.

So what can you do…? The reason why it’s so hard to know exactly how long marijuana stays in your system is because a person’s metabolism is very seldom as cut & dry as the difference between our friends Smoker A and Smoker B. We’re all completely different, and the only way to know if you’re clean or not is to buy a home drug test and just test yourself. If it comes up positive, and you know you’re going to be given a urine test, you’ve really only got one option: dilution.

Contrary to popular misconception, dilution does not mean drinking a gallon of water a day for a week or a month before your test. For passing a drug test, all you need to do is drink enough fluids right before your test so that your urine becomes dilute. Remember how I told you that the THC metabolites in your fat cells end up going through your kidneys and getting flushed out in your urine? Well, all you need to do to pass a urine test is drink so much that your kidneys become ‘overloaded.’ When that happens, your urine gets so dilute that your pee actually comes out clear, instead of yellow. And that means that anything that would normally show up in your urine (THC metabolites, and also other substances) is basically non-existent.

Every single detox drink on the market works on the principle of dilution. Their instructions tell you to drink a certain amount of water, and then what the drink does is add these ‘other substances’ back into your urine that are supposed to be there (for example, creatinine). Labs know that people try to dilute, so they run some tests specifically to see if you’ve been trying to game the system. Detox drinks have a sketchy track record of success, but if you’re a light smoker, with a fast metabolism, then your chances of passing a drug test with one of them are pretty decent.

But if you’re a pretty regular pot smoker, your best bet to successfully pass a urine test is to do your own dilution method at home. You can buy the same ingredients that are in the detox drinks (creatine, and B-vitamins to turn your urine yellow again) and achieve better results by controlling the process. And especially if you’re overweight, you’ll also most likely need to drink quite a bit more water than the detox instructions tell you to, to help guarantee you’ll pass.

There are a lot of sites on the Internet talking about how to pass a drug test, but most of them are commercial sites of companies who want you to buy their products. One of the real advantages to diluting on your own is that it’s a lot cheaper. Which means you can afford to do a trial run and give yourself a urine test at home first, to make sure you’ve got the process down. You can pick up a home drug test in any major pharmacy, and once you can pass at home, then you can be confident of passing a drug test at the lab.

Worried about passing a urine test? Find the answer here.

Rising marijuana potency levels have been a favorite propaganda tool in the War On Drugs for years, in an effort to convince the public to shun the Evil Weed. Like higher potency is a bad thing!? No doubt you’ve read news of the latest annual report by the University of Mississippi Marijuana Potency Project, that this year marijuana potency levels have risen yet again - by less than 1%. This is nothing more than a blip on the radar of smokers, but it will reinforce fears among the firmly anti-pot voting bloc. Which, I suspect, is the White House’s intention.

There were so many things in this AP news release that had me rolling my eyes that I hardly know where to begin. It’s like, they took the facts and used misleading quotes to support a false conclusion. Here’s a good example in this quote by Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded the University of Mississippi study.:

"Particularly worrisome is the possibility that the more potent THC might be more effective at triggering the changes in the brain that can lead to addiction," Volkow said.

"Might be more effective…"? In the FIRST place, it’s yet to be proven that THC is effective at all in triggering these changes. To people who don’t know any better, statements like this only reinforce the anti-pot propaganda machine.

Here’s an excerpt that particularly pissed me off:

A report from the office last month found that a teenager who has been depressed in the past year was more than twice as likely to have used marijuana than teenagers who have not reported being depressed — 25 percent compared with 12 percent. The study said marijuana use increased the risk of developing mental disorders by 40 percent.

Gee, and I suppose that means that there is absolutely no connection at all between a teenager living in a fucked-up world and dealing with an inadequate educational system and and them WANTING to get high to find some relief?? To say that marijuana causes depression in teenagers is a COMPLETE cop-out that allows the government to avoid dealing with the real underlying issues of teen depression. But those would probably cost money to fix, so there’s no point in spending money on those kinds of studies, ‘eh?

One huge thing this news release fails to mention is that the potency level figure they came up with is an average derived from seized samples. It only takes a few potent samples to increase the average for the group, but that’s not proof that the average user is smoking super-potent weed. And besides - another thing this article fails to mention is that the average potency level of pot in European countries is much higher than here in the U.S., and they haven’t noticed an increase in any of the problems that the National Institute on Drug Abuse is trying to raise an alarm about.

It’s true that smoking pot can cause respiratory problems in a few people. That’s just common sense, because you’re smoking. But the fact is, when you’re smoking potent pot you’re probably going to smoke less - just like you do when you’re drinking alcohol. No one would drink the same volume of vodka or whiskey as they would beer, for instance. They’d pass out well before then, for one thing. So when you’re smoking the good stuff, you just smoke less, DUH. So instead of interpreting the information in this study as proof that THC is bad for you, all it means to me is that smoking pot is safer than ever!

 

Worried about passing a urine test? Find the answer here.

This is part two of my interview with John, who worked as a supervisor at a drug testing lab. You can read part one at Tips in Passing a Drug Test - Part I.

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DEE: Yes, I am well aware, for sure. So can you tell me a little about what goes on behind closed doors in a testing lab? I think most people already know that they’ve got to make sure that their urine appears yellow when they’re diluting. But what are these other ‘elements’ you mentioned?

JOHN: Yes, the color of the urine specimen (or rather, the lack of it) is the first most obvious indication of a dilution attempt. And even though we’re discussing dilution here, I should probably add that even before that, the temperature of the specimen is recorded to rule out the possibility of substitution. But assuming that the specimen passes the temperature and color test, and that it tests negative for THC metabolites, then additional tests are run to measure its specific gravity (sometimes referred to as relative density). To put it simply, the density of normal, undiluted urine falls within a certain range. Diluted urine will have very little density to it. So if the measured density of the urine specimen is below the normal range reference, a lab will flag it as diluted urine.

As for the specific elements that are measured in a urine drug test, there is only one: creatinine. Not all labs measure this, but the lab that I worked for did and I would say that most do. And as I know you are aware, creatinine levels that are below the normal range are yet one more indication of a diluted urine sample, regardless of whether or not it passes all of the other phases of the test.

DEE: So besides the obvious stuff, are there any specific tips in passing a drug test that you can recommend to people?

JOHN: Well, I think that what you recommend in your book more than adequately addresses all the points I’ve already mentioned, but there are a couple of things that I’d like to elaborate on if I may. One of the most important tips in passing a drug test that you mention yourself is the use of a B-complex vitamin supplement to put some color back into one’s urine after diluting. But the specific B-vitamin that provides the yellow color is B-2, so that’s all a person really needs to buy. And I would actually recommend that people take a higher dose than you recommend, like perhaps 5X the recommended daily dose on the label, or about 50-100mg. I realize that you’re probably trying to be conservative when you tell people to take double the daily recommended dose, but for just one day it’s really quite safe to take the higher amount. And a higher dose will turn urine yellow much quicker, and will also help ensure that it’s still providing color if someone has a long wait at the lab.

The second point I’d like to mention is the use of aspirin. I was impressed that you didn’t claim that this was effective for passing a drug test, but I do think that in the next edition of your book it would be a good idea to leave out any mention of it at all. There is nothing in aspirin that would have any effect in passing a urine test, and its use can be quite dangerous to some individuals. Aspirin is a much more serious drug than many people realize, particularly when it’s taken on an empty stomach. It causes small bleeding in the lining of the stomach wall, which can cause serious complications. So, since it isn’t helpful for passing a drug test anyway, it should be avoided unless it’s clearly indicated for an inflammatory condition.

DEE: Point taken. I do caution people about using aspirin, but if you say it’s not even helpful then I definitely will remove that the next time I revise my e-book. Well, I think we can wrap up and I won’t take up any more of your time, unless there’s something you’d like to add.

JOHN: I think that’s about it. Except that I would just really like people to know that it’s possible to pass urine test if they dilute properly, and that they shouldn’t necessarily see a drug test as a death sentence to their career. You’re providing a great service to people, Dee. Good luck with getting your message out.

DEE: Thanks for the encouragement and pat on the back - it means a lot to me coming from you. And good luck to you too in your new job! Thank you VERY much for taking the time to do this interview with me, John.

JOHN: It’s been a pleasure.

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Part one of this two-part interview is at Tips in Passing a Drug Test - Part I.

Worried about passing a urine test? Find the answer here.

Tips in passing a drug test are everywhere on the Internet, but unfortunately most of them are written by someone wanting to sell you detox products. Did you know that virtually all drugs besides marijuana are out of your system within just a few days? Yep. Only weed has such a long detection time, so that’s the reason why smokers need realistic tips in passing a drug test more than anyone.

Anyway, someone who bought my e-book recently is - get this - a lab supervisor who actually used to oversee drug testing.  He’s a smoker who had to take a drug test himself for a job offer at another lab. Talk about ironic. So I thought to myself, who better to ask for tips in passing a drug test from?? He was open to the idea of letting me interview him via chat, so that I could post it on my blog. It turned out to be pretty long, so I decided to post it in two parts. You can read the rest of this interview at Tips in Passing a Drug Test - Part II.

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DEE: Hi John, thanks for agreeing to do this interview. Knowing your background as a lab supervisor, I hope it doesn’t make you uncomfortable but I have to ask - as a smoker yourself, how can you square that with being in charge of drug testing? Most smokers don’t even get high at work, so testing is a serious invasion of privacy that can have a real negative impact on someone’s life.

JOHN: Well you get right to the point don’t you, lol. That’s a fair question and I knew you would probably ask me something like that. It’s a real sore spot for me, because of course I thought about that, on almost a daily basis in fact. I wasn’t directly involved with administering drug tests but I was in charge of the procedure, you’re right. But the bulk of the lab work we did was medical analysis for hospitals and clinics and the drug testing came later after I’d worked there for almost 2 years. Just on principle I would have liked to have quit immediately, but I had a family to consider so it was complicated. I continued working there for another 18 months or so, and it’s a huge relief to me now to finally be working at another lab that doesn’t perform drug testing. So, when you asked me to share some tips in passing a drug test for your readers, I guess I saw it as an opportunity to kind of balance my karma a little.

DEE: Thanks for your honest answer, John, and I’m really glad for your sake that you don’t work there anymore! But that brings me to my next obvious question - as a lab supervisor, I would’ve thought you’d know everything there is to know about how to pass a drug test. So when you needed to pass a urine drug test for your position at the lab where you’re working now, why did you need to get my e-book? I’ve been curious about this ever since you told me about what you do.

JOHN: Good question. Well it’s like this: part of my former job as lab supervisor was to keep up on the literature about current drug testing procedures, and to monitor information about known methods that people use in their attempts to get a false negative on a urine test. So yes, I knew I had all the information I needed to pass a drug test. But to be perfectly honest, I was also just as nervous as anyone else is who is facing a drug test. If for some reason I didn’t pass, it would have seriously damaged my reputation in the industry. So I suppose just as a way to reassure myself that I hadn’t missed anything I was looking on the Internet when I came across your e-book. It intrigued me because it was obvious to me that you had a grasp of the mechanics of hiding dilution, and I suppose I was curious about what you recommended to people.

DEE: So does that mean you agree with the entire premise of my e-book, that dilution is the best way to pass a urine drug test for marijuana?

JOHN: Oh yes, most definitely. It isn’t just the best way, it’s actually the only way. You have pretty good researching skills, and you got that part exactly right.

DEE: Thank you! But there are a lot of tips in passing a drug test out there that don’t even mention dilution, so could you explain, in layman’s terms, why it works so well for passing a urine test?

JOHN: Sure. Well, as I believe you state in your book THC is fat soluble and its metabolites are mainly excreted through the urine. THC metabolites will eventually be eliminated from fat cells over time of course, but since it isn’t possible to eliminate the fat cells themselves quickly, what a person can do is to dilute their urine output so that it has a much lower concentration of these metabolites.

Think of it like this: The human body can only contain so much water, and no more. If a person continues to drink fluids past the point at which the body is well hydrated, then the kidneys attempt to regulate the hydration level. To do that, they begin to pull water from other areas of the body in order to eliminate fluids via urination, to balance the excess fluids being taken in. Without this regulation process, along with frequent urination, water poisoning would occur (which can be fatal). So when a person drinks a large volume of water to pass a drug test, they are not actually increasing the efficiency of the kidneys. What they’re doing is simply increasing the amount of water in their urine, and thus decreasing the concentration of THC metabolites present.

I think it’s important for someone to understand this distinction. With dilution, THC metabolites aren’t actually eliminated from the body (only time or extremely rapid weight loss could accomplish that) but they are simply less concentrated in the urine. But as you know, the dilution process lowers the concentration of every other element that’s normally present in urine, which is how a test lab can identify when someone is actively trying to pass a drug test.

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Read part two of this interview at Tips in Passing a Drug Test - Part II.

Worried about passing a urine test? Find the answer here.