On the morning of your drug test make sure you show up, with your Government issued id. This should be obvious but refrain from using drugs or alcohol right before your drug test.
Avoid passive inhalation of smoke, refrain from using OTC medicine for cold, allergy, or any other conditions as well as poppy seeds in the morning before the test, consume diuretics like coffee or juices like cranberry and watermelon to help you with 'shy bladder syndrome' or paruresis. Knowing what to eat or drink can make the difference.
Table of Content:
- Things to Consider Before the Morning of Your Drug Test
- Types of Drug Test:
- What to do Before the Appointment
- Things to do in the Morning of Your Drug Test
- Things to Avoid in the Morning of Your Drug Test
- What to Drink in the Morning of Your Drug Test?
- What to Eat in the Morning of Your Drug Test?
- Bottom Line
Things to Consider Before the Morning of Your Drug Test
Drug testing is a process of inspecting certain biological samples to detect the presence or absence of illegal drugs or substances in the body.
It is usually conducted in workplaces during the pre-employment stage to verify the candidate’s background as well as to determine an individual’s performance ability.
It is mainly used to establish a safe environment for the employees and to decrease turnover by promoting a secure workplace atmosphere. It can also benefit a company in many ways. For example, if an employer is aware of certain habits of their employee beforehand, they can use it as a means of reducing their company’s compensation claims rate during workplace accidents.
In workplaces, random drug testing can also be conducted if it is a part of their safety policy. This is a method adopted by employers if they suspect substance abuse by the employee because of his/her behavior but the regular drug test report shows negative.
In recent years, drug testing has become mandatory in the sports sector and criminal investigation procedures. Here its major application is in detecting illegal drugs or performance-enhancing steroids in the body system.
The detection window depends upon the type of drug consumed, drug dosage, frequency of consumption, body weight, age, as well as the health of an individual.
Drug testing in the lab usually involves two steps. The first step is screening for the drug and the second is confirmation in the case of the first step report’s positive outcome.
Another important point is that the false positive reports in the screening test may turn out to be negative in confirmation tests. In the workplace, if pre-employment drug test reports turn out to be positive it will usually be confirmed only after it’s studied by a Medical Review Officer during the interview for the job.
Before we get into the things that you need to do on the morning of your drug test, let’s understand a few other things first.
Here are some of the commonly conducted drug tests used to detect the presence of drugs in an individual’s system.
Types of Drug Test
Depending on the category of drugs and the duration of their presence in the body, there are different types of drug tests conducted.
Urine Test
This is the most traditional and common method for detecting traces of the drug in the system. Here sample collection is quick and easy, and the method is cost-effective. However, this drug cannot determine the duration and amount of the drug consumed.
Urine test is performed using standard kits or by laboratory analysis.
Most of the laws are in favor of urine test reports and they consider it as Gold Standard for drug testing. One of the disadvantages of urine tests is contamination or tampering of the sample which must be strictly taken care of. Because of this reason false positive report rates are comparatively high in a urine test. A urine test can detect a variety of drugs, some of which are cocaine, marijuana, amphetamines, opioids, barbiturates, methamphetamines, alcohol, etc.
Blood Test
This test is slightly painful since it involves an invasive method for sample collection and is expensive when compared to a urine test. On the contrary, it is also considered the most accurate method for drug detection. In this method, the blood sample of the individual is collected from the vein and then analyzed in the laboratory. But the disadvantage of it is that it offers a small detection window since some of the drugs consumed are metabolized very fast and then quickly eliminated from the system.
Sweat Test
It is a well-known fact that some number of consumed drugs, after their metabolism, will be eliminated from the body through sweat. So, screening the sweat for detection of parent drug or its metabolite is another novel type of drug testing. In this method, a test patch or absorbent pad will be attached to the body, usually on the arm, for an extended period of about 14 days. The sweat collected in the pad will be analyzed after that specific duration of time.
Saliva/Swab Test
This is an oral fluid-based test. Though a certain amount of discomfort is felt by the individual undergoing the test, it is comparatively easy to conduct. Usually, it is performed with a help of a stick that has an absorbent pad attached to its end. And this collects the oral fluid sample from the throat. The main disadvantage of the swab test is that its detection window is very brief, and it can only detect recently consumed drugs.
Hair Test
The detection window of a hair test is much longer since it can detect the drug that has been consumed over 60-90 days. It is also the most expensive type of drug test which is tested by appropriate test kits that are costlier than other test kits. The hair sample should be collected by cutting the hair very close to the scalp nearer to the hair follicles because the drug metabolites collect in the hair follicles.
Breath Analyzer
Though it was initially developed to detect the concentration of alcohol in the exhaled air of an individual, it can also detect traces of drugs consumed by the person. It is a type of initial screening that must be confirmed further. The handheld device consists of a disposable mouthpiece into which the person exhales or blows and the aerosol particles collected will be screened by the device.
What to do Before the Appointment
It’s very important to be aware of the prerequisites or requirements before the appointment time so that you can minimize the waiting time. Following are some of the common requirements before drug testing:
- Make sure to keep your Government-issued ID ready for verification.
- Refrain from using drugs or alcohol before the drug test day.
- Be ready with all the paperwork and request letters needed for drug testing.
- Have the medical insurance policy certificate handy.
- If required refrain from drinking and eating anything, during that designated period before the test.
Things to do in the Morning of Your Drug Test
To prepare your system to pass the test, there are some recommended things to do on the morning of your drug test.
We will now help you understand some of the dos and don’ts that you need to keep in mind before you go in for that drug test in the morning.
There are different views regarding whether to take the drug test in the morning or the afternoon because both morning and afternoon tests vary from each other.
Since most of the body toxins accumulate in the bladder during the night, morning urine is highly concentrated. This makes it easier to detect the presence of drug contents in the body.
On the contrary, afternoon urine is cleaner and can be modified with the help of certain detox products.
It’s also best to avoid going for a morning test if you’ve consumed any sort of drug in the night as your chances of coming clean can decrease significantly. You will need to have a lot of fluids in the morning and urine at least 2-3 times in the morning. Along with this, you will also have to consume some detoxing substances to flush your system of any sort of drug. Hence an afternoon test is always advisable.
Things to Avoid in the Morning of Your Drug Test
To increase your chances of successfully passing a drug test, there are certain things you need to avoid on the morning of your test. They are:
Avoiding Passive Inhalation of Smoke
Hence avoid being around any person who smokes weed or any sort of drug. Even if you’ve not been actively consuming any drug, passively inhaling smoke from certain drugs can result in a false positive report.
Consumption of Over the Counter Medications (OTC)
Refrain from using OTC medicine for cold, allergy, or any other conditions as well as poppy seeds in the morning before the test.
Avoid Morning Exercise
Do not exercise in the morning before the test as some drugs tend to hide in fat cells where they are undetectable. And physical activities may release them or their metabolites into the urine.
What to Drink in the Morning of Your Drug Test
To help flush toxins from the body it is recommended to urinate as much as possible in the morning. Along with flushing toxins from the body, it’ll also help to decrease the toxin concentration in the urine.
Hence, try to consume diuretics like coffee or juices like cranberry and watermelon to help in diluting the urine where again the drug becomes undetectable up to a certain extent.
What to Eat in the Morning of Your Drug Test
The food you consume is as important as any drink, to help you come clean in the drug test. As THCs are fat-soluble, eating junk and high-fat foods enables your body to absorb them in the fat cells. Due to this they usually don’t let it reach your bladder.
This can reduce THC concentration in your urine and hence increase your chances of passing the test. Food rich in protein, like meat, can increase creatinine content in your urine helping mask extreme dilution.
Along with this, drink lots of water to flush out the drugs if any.
Use certain detox products in the morning, that do not have side effects. They are easily available online.
Bottom Line
For your body to respond in the right manner, there are quite a few things that you need to do on the morning of your drug test. We have given you a comprehensive list of things to keep in mind and we hope this can be of help to you. Take care to carefully consider all the mentioned options before you go in for that test in the morning.