It is not a wonder that people work hard to be successful. When they are obsessed to attain such success, they involve in any kind of illegal activity to achieve it at any cost. This is true on every occasion. Similarly, passing the drug screening test due to such obsession is not an exception.
We may have come across various tampering methods and tricks to pass or dilute the sample to escape the drug test. However, all these attempts end up in vain for those people who get caught red-handed in the end. Thanks to the new advancements in the laboratory methods which help to identify the fraudulent practices that happen during the drug test.
Despite those efforts, some people still come up with new tampering techniques to pass the drug test. One such technique is the usage of baking soda bombs. This is one of the unproven techniques and potentially a lethal attempt that the meth users try to pass the drug screening. This technique was prevalent mostly in the South Dakota area in the United States and has been spreading to other states with increasing meth users.
In this blog, we will be exploring about this lethal baking soda bomb and its effects on the drug test.
Table of Contents:
- Baking Soda Bombs And Drug Tests - A Dangerous Combination
- What is a Baking Soda Bomb?
- Meth Use in the United States
- How Long Does Meth Retain In The Body?
- How Does the Meth Get Down to the Bladder?
- Is It Possible To Make A Baking Soda Bomb At Home?
- Do Baking Soda Bombs Help You To Pass The Urine Drug Screening Test?
- Final Words
What is a Baking Soda Bomb?
A baking soda bomb is a mixture of three ingredients - Water, Bleach and Baking Soda. This combination is mostly used by many people to falsify or escape the drug screening test with false negatives. The chemical “Sodium Bicarbonate” which is present in considerable amounts in the Baking Soda is alleged to have greater chances of eliminating the drug traces from the bladder.
The actual fact is that baking soda is consumed by people to reduce indigestion problems. So there is a doubt over its capability to eliminate the drug traces. Also, the combination of bleach is one such concern. Bleach is used externally to disinfect and keep away house pests. Consuming such agents will have a threatening effect on the health of an individual.
Despite these discrepancies, most of the meth addict population attempted this method to pass the urine based drug test. Many people who used meth were sentenced to probation without imprisonment and had to undergo regular urine drug test according to the court’s order until they proved to be sober. In order to evade detection, people attempted different tampering methods and thus resulting in the making of baking soda bombs.
There is no evidence that the baking soda bombs will mask the meth traces in the body. Apart from that, the testers can easily identify if the urine specimen is adulterated or diluted by measuring the urine’s specific gravity and pH value. If the specific gravity is high and the pH value is out of range (normal range being between 3 and 11), the specimen is considered to be adulterated either with sodium bicarbonate or any other agents.
The tester can identify baking soda intake with certain external appearances too. If any particular individual feels sore with stomach cramps, pain or diarrhea symptoms during the drug test, there are possibilities that the individual might have consumed baking soda bombs.
With the initial level of success in South Dakota, there has been an increase in the usage of the new Meth-breaker - Baking soda bombs in other areas of the United States also.
Meth Use in the United States
According to the sources of the U.S. Department of Drug Enforcement, there has been a rise in the death of Americans due to meth overdose. This has increased from 3700 in 2014 to nearly 5000 in 2015. This is approximately a 30% spike, which deeply concerned the US government. At the same time, the usage of opioids was also increasing. The attention was more on the opioid epidemic than on the meth because of its tendency to kill slowly and at a lower rate.
According to the Controlled Substances Act, Meth is classified as a Schedule II stimulant drug. Its medical use is limited and has a high abuse potential. This drug is sold only through a prescription and cannot be refilled.
People consume meth by smoking, snorting, swallowing or injecting by dissolving the power in water or alcohol. The euphoric effects from the meth begin quickly and fade away very rapidly, thus making the drug users to repeatedly take more amounts of meth. People consuming large amounts of meth will stop eating and sleeping, and experience other short-term and long-term side effects.
In South Dakota, drug use had increased from 12.5% from 2015 to 2016 and has grown due to several reasons including:
- Affordability of the drug (less expensive)
- It is more powerful than earlier
- Emergence of the drug cartels in Mexico and mass production of the drug
- Drug cartels pushing those drugs to the vulnerable communities thereby putting them at risk
- No medical treatment for meth dependence
Consuming baking soda bombs helped many probationers in South Dakota to clear their probation drug test for meth and subsequently gained popularity, but it does not work for all. A minimal amount of this bomb overdose may end up lethal. Not all of them who took this dangerous concoction had cleared the test. It is because meth stays in the body based on the amount and frequency of usage.
How Long Does Meth Retain In The Body?
Meth is the second most illicit drug after weed, consumed by most of the population in the United States of America. Methamphetamine hydrochloride (Desoxyn - brand name) is the only prescription drug used for treating ADHD and obesity, but it is taken recreationally by the drug population as a sedative.
For primary smokers, meth intake via smoke will last only for 8 to 12 hours. For regular users, the effect and traces of meth in the blood and urine may last from 2 to 7 days. For heavy users, the impact of the drug in all the specimens like urine, hair or blood may make it detectable from 4 weeks to 12 weeks. Specifically, for medium to heavy smokers, the drug traces may be detectable in the urine for about 2 weeks.
The half-life of meth is about 10 hours on average. It means meth will take nearly 10 hours for half of its ingested amount to get metabolized. Normally, the peaking time of meth metabolites will take less time when consumed orally than taken intravenously. During the oral intake, the meth will peak between 2.5 hours to 3.5 hours, whereas when taken intravenously, it would take nearly 12 hours for the drug to reach its peak.
How Does the Meth Get Down to the Bladder?
Once consumed either orally or intravenously, the meth will reach the bloodstream within a maximum of 12 hours. After it reaches the bloodstream, it reaches the liver and from there the blood travels to all parts of the body. Hence, meth will get stored in the hair, blood and tissues. While reaching the bladder, the drug will get broken down into amphetamine and 4-hydroxymethamphetamine. These chemicals will store themselves in the bladder for one to four weeks based upon the frequency of the usage.
For instance, if a person is accused of meth usage, there are more chances of getting caught or failing the drug test if tested within one week of usage. With the prevailing high chances of passing the urine drug test using baking soda bombs, many people started to use this to clear the test. People attempt to make baking soda bombs at home, but is it possible to prepare the concoction to clear the drug test? Let’s find out……
Is It Possible To Make A Baking Soda Bomb At Home?
Theoretically speaking, there is no such standard way of making the baking soda bomb. That being said, it does not come up with an exact combination and preparation strategy to clear the drug test. Also, baking soda bombs are never tested for safety standards for consumption and hence it is considered dangerous to consume such combinations. The ingredient proportions used to make this concoction may not work for everyone alike. It may vary according to an individual’s body habitus, metabolism, age, gender, amount of drug used, etc. Therefore, it is very important to be cautious while taking baking soda bombs.
Do Baking Soda Bombs Help You To Pass The Urine Drug Screening Test?
The action of baking soda over the body is a parallel reaction. This parallel reaction may or may not help to pass the drug test.
When you consume baking soda, it enters the stomach and alters the pH level by mixing with the acid. This is the reason why the soothing effect occurs when consumed for upset stomach. This is only a temporary effect. Mixing bleach along with baking soda may cause ill-effects such as burning the tissues in the mouth, esophagus and stomach. Drinking baking soda bomb may alter the metabolism, and lead to bladder and intestinal spasms. This may result in frequent urination and diarrhea.
Due to the above, your urine sample will become diluted and unbalanced. Sometimes the sample will get destroyed thereby making it unfit for testing. To be worse, due to frequent urination and diarrhea, you will feel dehydrated. So, this will create a mess during the drug test.
Therefore, baking soda bombs will not directly act on the drug toxins or help you during the drug screening. They can assist you indirectly to wipe away the drug traces in the bladder as effectively as possible. Since Meth can get eliminated from the bladder with consecutive water intake and urination process, this baking soda bomb is considered as the parallel effective for tampering with the urine drug test. But, there is no scientific evidence that these bombs will clear the drug traces in the urine.
Despite that, the baking soda bomb may deteriorate your health and can be even fatal. If baking soda mixed with water is consumed, it can soothe your stomach for sometime, but taken in larger amounts may make you dehydrated. If you take baking soda in combination with bleach, then you are in serious threat. This combination is the deadliest and may burn all your internal organs if the proportion in the mixture goes wrong. So, it is best recommended to research extensively before attempting to take any other alternative methods to pass the urine-based meth test rather than consuming baking soda bomb.
Final Words
Baking soda bombs are a threat to the human when consumed without the knowledge of its working mechanism. These kinds of uncertified and illegitimate tests are being attempted now and then by the drug users all around the world. The successful iterations get followed and the unsuccessful remains low. But, to the fact, baking soda bombs had led to the death of many people in South Dakota before it reached its trivial zenith. So, it is best to avoid such illegal yet dangerous tampering methods to clear the meth screening test.
Rather, several tampering methods are safe and helpful in eliminating the drug traces from the bladder more effectively than these bombs. So, if you are about to face the drug screening test for meth usage, you can try some of the safest tampering methods to these dangerous techniques.
Baking soda is a soluble compound and acts as an antacid. It does not do any harm to the body if consumed in moderation, but when consumed in combination with other chemicals such as bleach, it may induce harmful side effects and alter the bowel and bladder pattern. Bleach is more dangerous when consumed and it can cause serious issues and can lead to death. Also, there are cases where many people fail a drug test even after taking baking soda bombs. So, it is best recommended to prevent consuming baking soda bombs as it contains a dangerous combination to pass the meth drug test.
People who want to evade detection will always try new tampering methods and the addicts will continue to use ineffective and unsafe methods. So watch your step…