Tips on passing a drug test are everywhere on the Internet – so how come so many people still manage to fail their drug tests? I think it’s partly information overload, from all the companies trying to sell so-called ‘detox’ products. They have to scare people into buying their products, so they put out a lot of bogus tips on passing a drug test to do it.

Just go hang out on any pot forum. You’ll find plenty of posts made by people who used a commercial detox drink to pass a urine drug test, and failed. Sure, some do pass, but the point is they’re not reliable. Unless you have some idea of how they work, and what testing labs are looking for, you just never know for sure if you’re going to be one of the lucky ones.

But if you do have a clue about how drug tests work, then your chances of passing with a detox drink go way up. Have you ever read the instructions that come with one of them? Every single one tells you to drink tons of water along with it. So here’s one of the most important tips on passing a drug test you should know about: among all the ways to pass a drug test you can read about, just plain old dilution is the only one that works the best for a urine test. And believe me, the detox drink makers know this.

So if they know dilution is the only way to pass a drug test, you might be wondering what exactly it is that they’re selling. AH, good question. Well they know, just as you probably already do too, that dilution by itself is a big red flag to testing labs (and is often an automatic fail). So you’ve got to put a few things BACK into your urine to get around this, so the labs can’t tell you’ve been diluting.

This is where the detox companies try to fool you into thinking they’ve got some super secret formula that makes them the authority on how to pass a drug test. But the fact is, they use the same exact ingredients that are used in the much cheaper ‘home remedies’ that they try to scare you away from using. Just remember that the next time you’re reading their tips on passing a drug test. It’s all just smoke and mirrors, and one big marketing tactic.

It’s not that marijuana detox drinks never work, because sometimes they do. My complaint with them is that in the interests of getting you to hand over big wads of cash, they withhold valuable information that would make their products a lot more effective for you, the person whose life will actually be affected if you fail your test.

But even if detox drinks were a lot more reliable, one of my first tips on passing a drug test would be NOT to buy one. Not when you can make a better detox drink for a fraction of the cost.