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.

Does Detoxification Work for Passing a Drug Test?

First off, some basic science about where the evidence of marijuana use is found in your body. THC metabolites, which are the by-products that 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. THC metabolites are only found in your fat cells. Which is why so-called ‘detox’ products are useless for passing a drug test – they can help cleanse organs like the liver and kidneys, but you can’t ‘detoxify’ fat cells – your only option for getting rid of THC metabolites in a hurry is by getting rid of fat cells in a hurry. And if you can do that, you’ll be a millionaire and you probably won’t need to pass a drug test anyway. :-)

But over time, these THC metabolites get processed naturally through your body and are eliminated through your kidneys, just like many other kinds of toxins and chemicals that we ingest. So if you’re a daily smoker, everyday you’ll be losing metabolites in your urine, and also adding new ones to your store of fat cells. Any discussion about how to pass a drug test has to start with the facts, and now you know: passing a drug test is possible through other means, but you cannot actually ‘detox’ your body in time to pass a test that you’ve got coming up the next day or the next week.

Just How Long Does Marijuana Stay In Your System?

To illustrate what this means for you, let’s use an example of Smoker A and Smoker B. They both smoke the exact same 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’s Your Best Option for Passing a 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 actually pretty decent.

Passing a Drug Test for Heavy Smokers

If you’re a pretty regular pot smoker, then using a commercial ‘detox’ drink is a big gamble. In that case, 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 and achieve much more reliable 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 drink 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. But another real advantage of 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.

Sometimes I feel like a preacher or something, I swear. But instead of getting up on a pulpit to rant about fire and brimstone and the wages of sin, I’m on a soapbox trying to get through to people that dilution is the only reliable way to pass a urine test. And instead of fighting Satan, my nemesis is a Mountain of Misinformation.

An Important Fact About Passing a Urine Test With Dilution

What about you? Have you heard about dilution and then just dismissed it as yet another weird theory about how to pass a urine test? Well, before you write it off, think about this: you know those detox drinks you can buy? That’s exactly how they work: DILUTION, plain and simple. Yes, I KNOW they claim to ‘cleanse’ your system, blah, blah, blah. But the harsh scientific reality is that you can’t detoxify your body to get rid of THC in a hurry – all you can do is temporarily detoxify your urine by flushing your kidneys with water. So the only thing detox drinks actually cleanse is your wallet, regardless of their marketing hype.

How Detox Drinks Work

When you read the directions on any commercial detox drink, every single one tells you to drink lots of water before drinking it. The reason why is because those companies know the truth – that dilution is the only way to pass a urine test in a hurry. But a good sales pitch can make common dirt sound like the answer to your prayers, so they have to make you believe that their products contain some secret potion that can miraculously wash THC out of your system. But the reality is that it’s the water you drink that temporarily ‘washes’ the THC out of your kidneys. All a detox drink does is provide you with the supplements you need in order to hide the fact that you’re diluting from the testing lab.

The Pros & Cons of Using a Detox Drink to Pass a Urine Test

Which isn’t to say that detox drinks never work, because they often do. The big problem with them is that they’re just not very reliable. They’re a one-size-fits-all solution for the average person, and because everyone’s metabolism is different, you just have no way of knowing in advance if you’re going to be average enough for them to work for you. In most cases you’re way better off just buying the same ingredients that are in those things and custom-making your own ‘detox drink’ at home. Every single ingredient in those drinks is something you can buy yourself in any health food store or major pharmacy.

Another good reason for making your own detox drink is that it gives you a chance to test yourself before taking your real test. With a commercial detox drink you don’t get a second chance, unless you buy a couple of them at fifty bucks or more a pop. Making your own happens to be a hell of a lot cheaper than buying a commercial drink, but I think for most people that’s not really a big consideration. After all, if you lose your job because you didn’t pass a urine test then it won’t really matter how much money you saved.

There’s information about how to make your own detox drink plastered all over this website, and a good place to start is by reading the tips in this post. But if you’re in a hurry and you just want it all in one place, then you might want to check out my ebook about how to pass a drug test.

But one damn good argument in favor of commercial detox drinks is that they’re just so easy. You drink lots of water and then chug down the bottle right before you go in for your urine test. Period, you’re done. If you pass, you just saved yourself some hassle. Making your own home brew means you have to buy the individual ingredients that will mask your dilution, and then you have to keep track of what you’re taking and how much water you’re drinking. So, some people just may not want to deal with it. I don’t recommend taking a chance on a commercial drink if you have a probation test, or if you absolutely, positively have to keep/get a job. But if failing your test wouldn’t be the end of the world, then I can see where someone might want to just get a commercial detox drink and be done with it. I’m so used to making my own brew now that I don’t have to think about it, but I think for some people it would just be too much of a hassle. I guess it just depends on your desperation level.

Home Remedies That Won’t Help You Pass a Urine Test

One thing I get asked about a lot is Sure-Jell, or Certo (same thing). Of all the home remedies out there about how to pass a drug test I think this is one of the most dangerous, because it actually does appear to work sometimes. But you know what? Whenever I’ve talked to someone that passed with Sure-Jell, every single person has told me that they also diluted. But most of the people I’ve talked to who used Sure-Jell didn’t pass, either because they didn’t dilute at all, or because they diluted too much and the testing lab failed them for it. If you’re thinking about using this method because someone you know passed with it, ask them to tell you exactly what steps they used. I bet you discover the same thing I did.

Another theory about how to pass a urine test that you’ve probably read about is taking huge amounts of niacin – and this one really makes me crazy. Not only is it useless for passing a drug test, you can actually cause permanent damage to your liver if you overdose on it. Which isn’t that hard to do when you’re taking like 100 times or more the recommended daily dose. This one got started years ago from a book written by the late L. Ron Hubbard (the founder of Scientology). The book was about a purification/detoxification program for drug addicts, among other things. I’m not saying niacin isn’t an important vitamin, but Hubbard thought it could basically cure cancer and save the world. But um, last I checked the guy never got any degrees in medicine or nutrition, so his advice is based on his opinion alone, not fact. And then there’s that whole Scientology thing. That’s all I’ll say about that…

And then there are other miracle cures: cranberry juice (diuretic, just makes you pee more), vinegar (changes the PH of your urine), etc. etc. etc. You get the idea. Believe me, I know it’s overwhelming when you see how much wildly different information there is on the net about how to pass a drug test. You’d think it’d be easy to find out, but man, it is not. In the end it comes down to an entirely personal decision, but when it comes to specifically how to pass a urine test, I hope I’ve at least given you some food for thought. I’m not saying there’s not good information out there, but before you choose a method to go with just take everything you read with a grain of salt, verify your sources, and above all, ask lots of questions.