OHS Health & Safety Services, Inc.-
Article
"CHEATING
ON DRUG TESTS: DOES IT WORK?"
(A primer for the uninformed or misinformed!)
Copyright © 1999, 2000 OHS, Inc. All rights reserved.
DRUG-USERS
ALWAYS HAVE AND ALWAYS WILL TRY TO CHEAT THE SYSTEM!
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Cheating On A Drug Test
Successfully
Is Getting Tougher...
This article includes:
The two most popular ways used to cheat a drug
test.
Other common methods used to cheat drug tests.
Some total myths exposed about what is "supposed to" work.
OHS, Inc. is one of the Nation's largest providers of Employee Drug Testing services to America's employers!
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"Drug-Use Is Life Abuse" - Drug-Use Is
Self-Abuse
- Drugs Destroy Dreams!
Drug users and drug abusers are
finding it more and more difficult to cheat a drug test.
That's because both collection
sites and laboratories are adapting their procedures to keep cheaters
from passing their drug test. Do attempts to cheat still take place? You bet they do! All the time!
However, the odds of successfully cheating a drug test today are very
long and getting longer.
"On-site"
specimen collections are reinforcing those odds
against cheating. More and more companies are preferring to have a
trained Drug Test Technician (DTT) visit their offices, warehouse, manufacturing
plant, or other sites and have the actual drug test specimen collections
performed there, where their employees are "on the job" . Unlike
a busy clinic where specimen collections must take a back seat to the
emergencies at hand, a DTT considers a properly-performed drug test collection
their top priority. This includes taking the special precautions necessary
to ensure that the donor (employee) is not attempting to "substitute"
or adulterate" their specimen.
CLICK
HERE for more information about how "ON-SITE" specimen collections are
performed
The second hurdle for would-be cheaters is the testing laboratories. Labs
have greatly improved their methods in detecting those specimens that have been
tampered with by the donor.
Adulterating urine
samples, or altering a specimen by changing its concentration, is a common
practice that drug abusers use to hide the presence of drugs in their system.
Typical adulteration occurs by diluting the urine, either by adding water to
their specimen or by drinking large amounts of water to over-hydrate themselves.
By diluting the specimen, the concentration of drugs becomes less, sometimes
falling below the established cut-off marks for detection. Adulteration tactics
also include adding other substances to the urine sample (such as soap, bleach,
vinegar, or apple juice), substituting urine from an animal or another person,
and many other more elaborate schemes.
Previously, some abusers
were
able to pass a drug test by using one of these strategies. But new lab
technologies are now detecting drugs in samples that were
altered and un-testable before. Today, lab tests measuring
specific gravity, pH, creatinine levels, and temperature are determining
"positive" and "negative" results more accurately than
ever.
Here are two of the more
popular ways used to cheat a drug test and the usual result:
Attempt to cheat:
A diluted sample, since it will have an abnormally low creatinine and
specific gravity level
Result:
The applicant must submit another sample, often directly observed by a same
sex collector
Attempt to cheat:
Samples substituted with urine from another source (e.g., a friend,
spouse, commercially available urine, even an animal)
Result:
The specimen will not usually pass temperature tests (checked by the
collector); those that do pass
within the accepted range usually will not pass the specific gravity tests
(checked by the lab).
Lab tests today can often
indicate that the sample is not from the donor. In at least one case a man substituted his sample with that of his wife. When the specimen
failed the temperature test, lab testing indicated "he" was pregnant.
Adulterated samples will throw
pH levels off or exhibit substances not normally found in urine. In cases where
a definite positive or negative result cannot be determined, donors may
be required to resubmit a sample under "observed" supervision. New lab
testing methods now easily determine the presence of nitrites, such as the
masking agent found in Klear®. Once nitrites are detected, further testing
removes
the masking effect to discover which drugs are present. Laboratories are
constantly updating testing methods as new adulterant products enter the market.
CLICK
HERE for more information about how labs are detecting SPECIMEN ADULTERANTS
While technology can now identify
adulterated samples, safeguards also exist at the urine
specimen collection site, whether it's at a clinic or at the
job-site. For example:
-
donors are not
allowed in the collection room with coats, purses, bags, or other objects that
may be used to conceal an adulterant.
-
soaps, other possible
adulterants are removed from bathroom; toilet water is tinted blue so it
can't be used to dilute a sample.
-
donors must wash their hands
before entering the collection room to reduce the risk of smuggling
substances under their fingernails or on their hands.
- in the case of
"on-site"
collections, donor is routinely required to report immediately and
directly to the Drug Test Technician (DTT) when notified of drug test...donor is not permitted to
"go the the locker room", "run down the hall", or
"get something out of the car" (often-used ploys to enable a cheater
to retrieve adulterants or substitutes) before seeing the DTT and providing
a specimen.
CLICK
HERE for more information about how "ON-SITE" collections work
As technology
becomes more advanced and drug testing adapts to the creative methods of
cheating, drug abusers will also have a harder time getting away with it.
COMMON WAYS TRIED BY
DRUG-USERS TO BEAT A DRUG TEST
Using commercial
"screens"
(marketed everywhere, including all over the Internet) like Goldenseal,
QuickKlean, or Mary Jane Super Clean 13. They do little more than dilute a
sample. Any of them will "flag" the urine sample at the lab as
"tampered-with". Under U.S. Department of Transportation
regulations, D.O.T -covered employees whose sample is determined to be tampered
with are automatically reported as "positive" on their drug test and
they must be immediately removed from their positions by their employer.
Drinking vinegar.
It will lower the pH of urine, giving the lab evidence of tampering.
Drinking enough to sufficiently "mask" a sample causes violent
diarrhea (just what the druggie deserves).
"Doping" samples
with soap, salt, eye drops, or some other substance. These techniques also
flag the sample as "tampered-with".
Total Myths About What Will
Help Cheat a Drug Test
-
Eating red meat will raise
creatinine levels in a diluted sample. (Wrong!)
-
Dog urine can be substituted
to pass a drug test. (Wrong!)
-
Stealing your specimen from
the lab will prevent them from processing the results. (The invalid theory being,
labs never admit they lose specimens, so they would report your test as
negative and you'd get hired anyway.) Wrong!
-
Increasing your metabolism
will reduce the amount of time a drug can be detected in your system, and,
eating
a high calorie diet and starting an intense exercise program will do the
same. (Wrong on both counts!)
This year,
approximately 2,200,000 drug tests results will come back from the labs reported
as "positive" for one or more drugs. A greater percentage of
those this year than last year will be from cheaters who tried to
"pass" and were not successful. Cheaters will be caught during
the specimen collection process or they will be discovered by the lab. As
specimen collection procedures and lab analysis technology improves, it will be
an even a greater percentage who are caught trying to cheat next year and the next. If
you believe that your workplace and our schools should be a "Safe and
Healthy Environment" in which to work and to learn, if you believe that the
very foundation of our Society is deteriorating due to the pervasiveness of
substance abuse among the millions of "stoned" and "zonked"
adults and children we have out there every day in every community in America,
then you will join us in
saying, "Hooray!".
(end of this article)
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Now, please
indulge
us a bit of "Editorial". We cannot help but add the following
facts about our nation's very serious drug-abuse problem as an addendum to the
above information about "Cheating on Drug Tests":
The 3rd most-accessed page on or
entire web site (of 446 total pages) is for the above article, "Cheating on Drug
Tests".
On weekends, it's the #1 most-accessed page. Can you imagine why? We
added this page to our web site the first week of June, 2001. Within only
two weeks it became the overall 3rd most-popular page for our web site visitors
and it's been in that position - or higher - ever since. But "why" do
you think?
Certainly, the "title" is provocative. Yet, why is the
highest access to this page - and this particular subject - on weekends?
On weekends, company HR Managers, and Safety Officers, and
other responsible officers of companies and organizations are NOT usually
"surfing the Net". Typically, Monday through Friday are the
days they will look for information to help them do a better job providing a
"Safe and Healthy Environment" for their employees.
Therefore, we believe the reason for the outstanding popularity of the above article
is obvious: That is, that people (including employees) are accessing
the article page in the hope of learning a way to "cheat" on the drug
tests that their employers (or others) require of them. Please...if
you are the HR Manager, Safety Officer, owner, or stockholder of a
company...learn from this! The "obvious" here could not be any
more "in your face"!
Druggies have a good reason to want to cheat.
In the early 1980's many companies that newly-initiated drug testing programs
were discovering "positive" rates as high as eighteen to twenty-two
percent (18-22%) among their employees. In other words, in many
companies, an astounding one out of every five employees were found
to be "using" when tested for drug-use! And, companies began firing
those employees they caught using.
Today however, and since the mid 1990's, those and other companies that have
an on-going program of pre-employment and - (especially) "random" drug
testing - are routinely experiencing positive rates of only one to three percent
(1.0 - 3.0%) among their employees. The U.S. Airline Industry, is a
prime example (and, thank Heavens!). It has one of the most stringent drug
testing policies of any industry in the world and currently "enjoys"
an Industry-average positive rate of less than 0.1% (i.e., fewer than one
airline employee out of
every 1,000 tests positive). There is no question: Drug-Free
Workplace Programs work! We like to think of "drug testing" as
drug-abuse
prevention testing. And, prevention works!
"Educating" employees about the perils of substance abuse helps,
but it is not nearly as effective as drug-abuse prevention testing!
In 1998, our company, OHS Health & Safety Services, Inc., set up a new
Drug-Free workplace Program for a small, 17 years old messenger/delivery service
company in the Northern part of Florida. They had 62 employees. Per
our program management procedures, we authored a company drug testing
policy and had the company distribute a copy to all 62 employees. Each of
the 62 were required to sign an "acknowledgment" that they had read
the policy and that they would agree to abide by its terms. The signed
copy went into their personnel file. As is also part of our program set-up
process, they placed "Our Company is a Drug-Free Workplace" posters
on the walls in the lunch room and above the time-card stamp to remind employees of their new company policy.
Finally, we had the company include still another written "reminder"
of the new drug testing policy in every employee's pay envelope each of
the next four weeks.
On the forty-fifth day into the program, as requested by the
president/owner of this small company,
OHS™
dispatched two
"on-site" Drug Test Technicians
to the company for an 8 AM arrival. The president then announced to his
62 employees that they were all going to drug tested that morning. Nine
employees immediately walked off the job. Editor's comment: Do you
think it was simply a "right to privacy" issue or some other high-minded
ideal that prompted those nine to depart? We think not. (As even my
grade-school grandchildren would say, "Yeah, right! Gimme a
break!").
Specimens from the 53 employees who remained were collected and sent to the lab
for analysis. Thirteen (13) of the labs tests came back reported "positive" (a 24.5% positive rate). One lab positive was
ultimately "overturned" and ruled a "negative" by our
Medical Review Officer (MRO) because he was able to determine that the drug found by
the lab had been legally prescribed for that employee by a physician. That
reduced the actual positive rate to 22.6%. All
of the other twelve employees were positive for marijuana, and - get this - nine of those
twelve (3 out of 4) were positive for two illicit drugs: both
marijuana and cocaine.
It's been almost five years since that disaster happened to that small
company. As you must certainly realize, it was a real hardship and a
tremendous challenge for the owner to replace
the 21 of his 62 employees who walked off the job or were terminated because
their drug-test came back "positive". Today, however, that same company continues to do drug
abuse prevention testing, has more than 90 employees, their business has
since grown more than in any previous five years period in its history, and,
their average drug test "positive-rate" now consistently runs below
two percent (<2%)!
There are millions of "Drug Testing Success Stories". We
think this small Florida company is one of them.
A final opinion: When you own a company, large or small, it always represents a very huge and
great personal risk and, usually, the full commitment of
your every available dollar- your every dime. It sometimes means
pouring not only every personal dollar into the business, but every dollar you
can borrow from the bank and every dollar you can beg from your family and your
friends. It means your blood, sweat,
and tears to make it grow and to keep the doors open. (SBA
statistics: Six out of 10 new
businesses fail within three years; eight out of ten new businesses fail before
or by
their tenth year.) Therefore, the odds are already well against you.
On the other hand, if you are lucky, you can help beat the odds by having
loyal, dedicated employees who willingly also put their own "blood, sweat, and tears"
into your company to help
you grow...and to help your business "stay alive".
There are millions and millions of people out there like that, and who do
not
abuse or use drugs. Thankfully, they are the majority. Hire them. Keep them. Maintain for them -
always - the "Safe and Healthy Environment" in your workplace that
they deserve, that OSHA regulations require, and that morality dictates you
should. Do not let drug users and drug abusers hold your company
back from achieving greatness!
(End of "Editorial"-
Thanks for reading it.)
We invite you to visit
our new sister-company's website, today, too!
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