Step One: Just stop using cannabis.
The unfortunate reality of unexpected drug testing is nothing to joke about. Even though cannabis is being broadly legalized across the country, employers can still test you for THC and not hire you if you fail. These policies seem outdated when the perception of pot has changed so much. In 2018, the Pew Research Center found that 62 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana.
While most companies aren’t required by law to test current and potential employees for marijuana, many employers still do. This may change in the coming years, but until then, recreational cannabis consumers and medical marijuana users need to find a way to get by.
Drug test specifics aren’t easily available, so many people are left frantically Googling “how to pass a urine drug test in 24 hours” to figure out if they’re good to go. So, we’ve gathered all our tips and tricks on how to pass a drug test in 24 hours.
Table of Contents
Factors for How to Pass a Urine Drug Test in 24 Hours
In order to get a better understanding of how to pass a urine drug test in 24 hours, you need to understand the process behind drug testing. It’s important to think about these three questions before making a choice on how you want to prepare for your test.
Who is requiring you to take a drug test?
Taking a drug test administered by a physician for legal reasons is much different than taking one for an employer, and the consequences of failing a drug test at work are going to be less severe than failing a court-ordered drug test. (Losing your job is still pretty severe if you ask me).
What Substances Can the Drug Test Detect?
Some employers might be hip to the times and won’t be looking for THC, but unless that’s explicitly stated, assume they’re looking for THC too.
Do You Have to Go to a Facility at a Certain Time?
If you do, be sure to plan your day strategically. Knowing what time you are going to take the test is especially beneficial for those using detox products to mask the THC for the drug test.
Can You Find Information on the Lab They Use?
If you can, look for what exactly the standard or 5-panel drug test is trying to detect. This can be very beneficial because it could turn out that the test is not looking for signs of marijuana use!
What Type of Drug Test Is It?
To pass a urine drug test in 24 hours is a much different beast than having to pass a saliva test, for instance. There are many different types of drug tests including urine, blood, and mouth swab testing.
Is Someone in the Room with You at the Testing Site?
As these questions should illuminate, how you pass a drug test in 24 hours depends on what the tester is looking for and how the test is administered. If there is no one in the room with you, it would be much easier to use tactics such as synthetic urine or diluting your real sample.
Helpful Terms for Passing a Drug Test
As we mentioned above, passing a urine drug test in 24 hours is a much different task than hair or saliva testing. To help you understand, I’ll run down some general information on how the body eliminates substances, focusing on marijuana. Before we can begin to decide how to pass a drug test in 24 hours, let’s go over a few terms:
- Half-life: The duration of time it takes to eliminate/destroy half of the active substance or drug
- Immunoassay: The means of measuring a specific substance (or metabolites) by concentration available in the body at a specific time.
- Cannabinoid: The components of cannabis that range in potency, depending on the strain, and create the various effects of marijuana.
- Chromatography: A method of exposing the individual components of a sample, such as different substances present in urine.
- Mass Spectrometer: A tool to expose the components of a sample through separation of isotopes and molecules, such as effects of cannabinoids.
More About the Half-Life
If you want to know how to pass a drug test in 24 hours, it would be helpful to know the methods the testing facility uses to analyze the sample. The most common method of drug testing involves immunoassay testing of a sample (urine, saliva, etc…) and a secondary test such as chromatography or use of a mass spectrometer (referred to as GC/MS testing).
The standards and conditions under which samples are analyzed are expected to meet all federal regulations, and therefore having knowledge of how these tests work can give you an advantage when looking to pass a drug test, especially if you have to pass a urine drug test in 24 hours.
When looking into how to pass a drug test in 24 hours, some of the most important information comes from the half-life. The half-life of a drug and how long it can be detected can vary based on an individual’s usage habits, the method of consumption, and much more. Knowing, on average, how fast humans can process through half of a substance gives insight into how long you need to detox from a substance.
Let’s take aspirin as an example:
Aspirin has a half-life of 6 hours. That means in 6 hours, half of the Aspirin will have been broken down by the body. That means only half of the active drug still exists. In 6 more hours, only ½ of the remaining active ingredients or ¼ of the active substance will remain. So on so forth.
Are You Taking a 5-Panel Drug Test?
The big 5 substances make up what is called a “5-panel” test. While expanded versions of this exist (such as 9-panel), it is safe to assume that any drug test you take is at least 5-panel. Going into any drug test, it’s important to be aware of how much of the substance you took and when it was used.
It’s going to take longer for your body to get rid of a substance if it was taken in a large amount. Marijuana is a great example of how consumption frequency and volume of use can change the duration you have to detox for.
How Long Does Marijuana Take to Get Out of Your System?
Infrequent Consumer (~1-2 times a week)
A “social smoker” who takes 1 or 2 hits on the weekend has the best chance of passing a drug test in a short amount of time. This is because the body is able to eliminate the active parts of the substance in those with low tolerances as long as the substance wasn’t taken in a huge dose.
Typically, those who are infrequent users and only use a small amount can be clean in 2-4 days without trying.
Frequent Consumer (~5-6 times a week, once a day)
If you have to pass a urine drug test in 24 hours and are a frequent cannabis user, success is possible but not likely. Current estimates suggest that within 10 days a frequent user can pass a drug test without using any sort of detox method.
To give yourself the best chance of passing, drink water and cranberry juice to help your body cleanse faster and exercise to try to eliminate some of the fat cells that THC is stored in.
All-Day Consumer (Daily, multiple times a day)
If you’re an all-day everyday kind of marijuana user, the common detox time is around three weeks to a month. Time is the only thing on your side here.
