DOT drug tests really aren’t different than any other kind of drug test. I hear from a fair number of people who have to take them, worried that they’re harder to pass. But the only thing that makes them different is the fact that the requirements for a DOT drug test are set at the federal level.

What Is A DOT Drug Test?

For those who may not know, DOT stands for ‘Department of Transportation’. People who have to take a DOT drug test include anyone who drives a large truck or bus for a living, and any workers who are remotely involved with those vehicles – which is basically anyone in the same company.

A federal agency called the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has about a hundred pages of regulations that both employers and labs have to follow when administering DOT drug tests. But fortunately, most of those regulations simply cover the details about the paperwork that has to be done. The drug tests themselves are basically carried out just like they are for any other employer. Which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take them seriously – it just means that you don’t have any extra cause for concern just because you’re taking a DOT drug test as opposed to any other kind.

Does The Dilution Method Work For DOT Drug Tests?

Since the FMCSA requires that a DOT drug test be a urinalysis, then yes, dilution will work fine. At least, it will be if you happen to be a pot smoker.

You’ll be given a standard 5-panel test that looks for other toxins as well, so if you do more than just smoke pot you’ll need to be aware of their detection periods and plan accordingly.

For most other drugs besides weed, detection periods are measured in days, not weeks. THC cannabanoids are kind of in a class by themselves because of the way they’re stored in the body (in your fat cells), which is why marijuana use can be detected so much longer than other drugs.

What’s The Best Way To Pass A DOT Drug Test?

For a routine piss test, federal law doesn’t require you to be observed. So you can dilute, as long as you do it CORRECTLY. When you do it right, you’re genuinely able to give a clean, ‘undiluted’ specimen right on the spot.

Of course you could also substitute, as long as you have access to clean pee and you’re able to keep it at the right temperature. You might also be able to use synthetic urine, which is mostly reliable.

But a few labs are able to detect certain ‘markers’ in synthetic urine that give it away. It’s a cat & mouse game that is always changing, so you just never know. Which is why I recommend that you use a ‘real powdered urine kit’ instead, if you can get your hands on one. It’s literally real human urine, and as long as the temperature is in the right range it’s a guaranteed pass.

HOWEVER – if you’ve recently failed a test, or if you’re coming back to work after being off because of an accident or something like that, then your drug test WILL be supervised.

For DOT Drug Tests, There Are Two Problems With Using Dilution

Federal regulations don’t require on-the-spot random tests for DOT tests. So most DOT employers schedule routine drug tests, and you don’t have to worry about being randomly tested. But if you happen to work for a real jerk who prefers to surprise his employees, then you’re in trouble.

Dilution won’t work in a situation where you aren’t given at least a couple hours notice. In that situation, I hate to say it but you’re pretty much screwed. I sure wish I could invent a magic pill that would help pot smokers pass on a minute’s notice, because I’d be a millionaire.

Another situation where you might be screwed is if you’re being RE-TESTED. This one is hard to predict, because it depends on the individual circumstances in your case. But there’s always a chance that for a re-test, your specimen will be tested at a much lower tolerance level, 15ng/ml instead of 50ng/ml.

Unless you stopped smoking for at least a few weeks prior, then it will be virtually impossible to dilute enough to get your metabolite levels below a 15ng/ml cut-off.

But USUALLY, if you’re being asked to give a whole new specimen, then it means you’re going to be tested at the higher tolerance level first…

So What’s The Take-Away?

First, you’d better hope and pray that your DOT drug test is scheduled, and not random. If it’s a routine test and you know you won’t be observed, then substitution is definitely worth considering. And if you have a scheduled test that even might be supervised, then you can dilute, but in that situation the chances are slightly higher that you’ll be tested at the lower tolerance level of 15ng/ml.

Recommended Reading

• How to Pass a Drug Test
• Military Drug Tests
• Drug Tests and Your CDL License

Drug testing urine is pretty common nowadays, but that doesn’t mean you ever get used to it. Even though I’ve got the process down and am always pretty confident I’ll pass (and so far I always have), I’m still always a tiny bit nervous until I get those final results back from the lab. Which brings me to the topic of this post… which is that, regardless of how commonplace drug testing urine has gotten to be, you should treat EVERY drug test you take like it’s your very first time if you really want to pass.

Drug Testing Urine – Don’t Get Lazy!

The reason I bring this up is because I’ve known more than one person who didn’t pass a urine test just because they got kind of lazy, frankly. YES, it’s a pain in the butt to dilute before you go to your appointment. You have to drink a hell of a lot of water (which can be uncomfortable, to say the least), and you have to keep track of taking a bunch of supplements for covering up your dilution, yada, yada, yada. But you know what? If you really want to pass a piss test, you just gotta suck it up and do it.

Pretty much everyone is so freaked out and paranoid before we take our very first drug test, that we take every single thing about it dead serious. The problem is, once you successfully pass a drug test it’s easy to start thinking, “Hey, that wasn’t so bad after all. So what’s the big deal?” Well let me tell ya, that is dangerous thinking – because when labs are drug testing urine, they take each and every test REAL serious so you’d better too. If you start cutting corners when you dilute, thinking that you can get away with not doing this thing or that, then you’re playing with fire, man.

What Labs Are Looking For When Drug Testing Urine

Probably the most important advice I have for anyone who has a drug test coming up is to TEST YOURSELF AT HOME before walking into the lab. You can find home test strips for a few bucks each at most major pharmacies, and investing in two or three of them is pretty cheap insurance considering what’s at stake.

And if you’re really desperate to pass a drug test, you might want to also buy a specimen validity test. Those will set you back twenty to thirty bucks, but if you have the money just shut your eyes and do it. Because when a lab is drug testing urine, they aren’t just looking at whether or not you test negative for THC metabolites. They’re also looking for evidence to see if you diluted. If you’re doing a trial run at home first (which I HIGHLY recommend that you do), then a specimen validity test will let you know if you’re doing it right so that the lab won’t flag you for dilution.

Passing a Urine Drug Test Is Totally Do-Able

Bottom line, even though preparing for a drug test can be a hassle, it’s all worth it if you pay attention to each step and do it right. The hassle is nothing compared to losing your job, not being able to get a job, or especially failing a probation test. Big Brother’s drug testing urine isn’t going to go away anytime soon, but with some serious due diligence it doesn’t have to have a major impact on your life.

Recommended Reading

• How to Pass a Drug Test
• How to Pass a Drug Test for Marijuana – All About Dilution
• Urine Drug Tests – Your Best Options for Passing
• How to Pass a Urine Drug Test – The Basic Methods Explained
• Tips in Passing a Drug Test – Part II
• Tips In Passing A Drug Test
• How To Pass A Urine Test

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.

Recommended Reading

• How to Pass a Drug Test
• Why Does Weed Stay In Your System So Long?
• Passing a Drug Test – Know Your Detection Times!
• How to Pass a Drug Test Naturally – Is It Possible?
• How to Pass a Drug Test – Leave Your Paranoia At The Door
• Passing a Drug Test – Your Best Options For Passing in a Hurry
• Tips On Passing a Drug Test – Always Consider the Source

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.

Recommended Reading

• How to Pass a Drug Test
• Why Does Weed Stay In Your System So Long?
• Passing a Drug Test – Know Your Detection Times!
• How to Pass a Drug Test Naturally – Is It Possible?
• How to Pass a Drug Test – Leave Your Paranoia At The Door
• Home Remedies for Passing Drug Tests – the Good, Bad, & Just Plain UGLY
• Tips On Passing a Drug Test – Always Consider the Source

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.

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 this subject. 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 on how to pass a drug test? I’ve been curious to know the answer to this ever since you told me about what you do for a living.

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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Recommended Reading

• How to Pass a Drug Test
• Drug Testing Urine – What It Takes to Pass Every Time
• How to Pass a Drug Test for Marijuana – All About Dilution
• Urine Drug Tests – Your Best Options for Passing
• How to Pass a Urine Drug Test – The Basic Methods Explained
• Tips in Passing a Drug Test – Part II
• How To Pass A Urine Test