As a sensitive issue, drug screening often evokes anxiety, especially when occasional users are given short notice of drug testing. Even worse is when your career or future employment depends on the drug assessment and screening results.
There are some hacks people have used before to cheat the system and get lucky to land a negative drug test. Data from the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence reveals that 70% of the 14.8 million Americans who abuse illegal drugs are employees.
Such data puts employers in a tight spot to ensure safety in the workplace, reduce worker’s compensation claims, and maintain productivity, hence the need for occasional drug tests.
In equal measure, employees have also upped their game by using creative means to cheat drug tests. Some of the most common cheats are listed below.
Common drug test cheats used by employees.
1. Swapping urine samples
Some people get away with using other people’s urine samples to pass the test. Others use animal urine or even buy synthetic or powdered urine pockets online.
It’s easy! Once your fake sample is ready and you know when the drug test is scheduled, you devise a way to keep the sample warm by placing it under the armpit or in the groin area. While this hack was commonly used for urine tests, it is not only incompatible with other tests but also outdated.
2. Diluting urine samples
Cheating through dilution can be done by either adding water directly to the urine sample to be tested or drinking lots of water conveniently before the test. This works by dissolving the drug saturates beyond substantial detection.
3. Leveraging adulterated samples
Adulterated samples are those mixed with chemicals that alter the test results. These chemicals often mask out drugs in the urine and may include soap, salt, peroxide, or eye drops.
4. Detoxification agents
Detox could also be a cheat method, where the testee consumes foods rich in fiber, herbs, and herbal teas to flush out harmful metabolites from the body. There are also pills alleged to flush out certain drugs from the body.
These pills or drinks can be found on the e-market but are not really detox kits as claimed by manufacturers since the user does not go through withdrawal, as is evident in medical detox programs. Instead, the kits are manufactured to cheat drug tests and may take a few to several days to work.
There is, however, a downside to most of these hacks; they do not apply to the current testing technology that detects tampered specimens and labels them “invalid.” To pass a drug test after smoking crack, one must consider some factors to understand the implications of crack cocaine in the body and the likelihood of getting away with a cheat.
On that note, this article will unfold all you need to know about the detection of crack cocaine in various test modes prior to submitting a drug test and answer the buzz question “How to pass a drug test after smoking crack.”
How long does crack stay in your system?
What is crack cocaine?
Crack, powdered cocaine gets its name from the cracking sound it makes when heated. It comprises somewhat white crystals which, when heated, sublime into a vapor that is inhaled.
This mode of ingestion goes directly into the bloodstream, causing an intense but short-lived high. This is why most users often binge on crack, resulting in addiction. Even though the high lasts about 5-15 minutes, crack traces can still be found in your urine, blood, saliva, and hair.
Factors affecting how long crack cocaine stays in your system.
Metabolism rate
This is the rate at which your body breaks down substances. The primary organ that breaks down crack cocaine is the liver. Depending on how the liver functions, this process might take longer for some users compared to others.
Dosage
The amount of crack smoked affects its elimination from the body even though its half-life is relatively short – about one hour. Higher doses increase the high and deliver prolonged effects, which means the liver will have to work twice as hard to metabolize crack compounds.
As a result, there will be more metabolites – the byproducts of drug metabolism, in the system. These are what drug tests screen for as they provide a longer window of detection.
Frequency of use
The more often a user smokes crack, the longer it takes the liver to eliminate it from the body entirely. This is because metabolites build up, extending the detection window.
Similarly, as the user progressively uses crack, the body becomes less responsive and creates dependency, leading to a build-up of the metabolites.
Age
Physiological and metabolic processes slow down with age. Therefore, older folks might metabolize drugs much slower than younger users.
However, the age factor depends on the user’s health status. If the user’s health is compromised, it could potentially affect drug clearance from the body.
Hydration
A well-hydrated user quickly flushes out crack metabolites from their system as water increases urine output. Nevertheless, if a significant amount of food is taken near the time of drug consumption, the metabolism of crack slows down since the body is also working to break down food.
Detection method
Different drug tests have varying windows of detection. Based on the aforementioned factors, crack cocaine metabolites will remain in the bloodstream, urine, saliva, and hair at varying concentrations. This introduces us to the next section expounding on crack detection time.
Types of drug tests and their corresponding crack detection time
Urine test
This commonly administered drug test indicates crack metabolites for up to seven days, depending on quantity and frequency. Usually, for a novice user, the metabolites remain traceable in urine for 3-4 days.
Urine test is also the easiest to tamper with since you will be granted a small window of privacy when providing the urine sample, presuming that nobody will be watching you.
Biomarkers will then be used to analyze the urine sample, indicating the history of drug usage within the last few days.
Saliva test
Saliva test, or mouth swab, is the least invasive screening technique, which involves using a swab or Q-tip to collect fresh saliva from the lining of the cheeks or under the tongue.
This test takes only a few minutes and delivers 100% accuracy. However, it is significantly time-specific and, like the urine test, can only detect up to a particular limit.
During crack cocaine detection, this test is only valid between the first 24 to 48 hours of exposure. Results are instant in cases where quick screening is required, making it convenient for workplaces and roadside testing.
This also makes the test less susceptible to tampering.
Blood test
Blood screening is an invasive test that is costly but highly accurate. A blood sample is drawn through an IV injection and preserved to prevent degradation of its metabolites. This is the only window for altering the integrity of the blood sample.
Though accurate, blood screening has a shorter detection window of a few hours to a day of consumption. It, therefore, does not indicate habitual use but can detect up to very low concentrations of crack in the bloodstream.
Unlike the urine and saliva tests that have a testing kit or can be administered by other professionals, blood tests can only be administered by a trained healthcare provider.
Hair test
The hair follicle test is the most uncommon test method due to its expensive nature and the specificity of administration. It is commonly used to detect long-term drug use patterns since it reveals the history of drug use over an extended period.
A strand of hair is plucked from the scalp, near the roots, to capture recent drug use, washed to remove external contaminants, and analyzed for crack metabolites. The test is highly accurate, with a larger detection window than all other tests.
For crack cocaine, the detection window lasts from a few days to several months after ingestion. Similarly, patterns of abuse and abstinence can be determined over several months or years, depending on the length of hair strand collected.
Hair follicle tests are commonly used in rehab programs, law enforcement departments during forensics, and on people under probation or with medical issues.
This test is also challenging to tamper with.
All you should know to get a false-negative drug test after smoking crack.
Know the type of test to be administered.
A little curiosity could be beneficial as you can prepare depending on your current situation. However, if this situation involves you being a secondhand crack smoker, we have prepared the right article addressing whether secondhand smoke will appear on a drug test.
The urine test is the most convenient as you can easily influence the outcome through hydration.
In the case of a hair follicle strand test, it barely recognizes recent drug use since it takes time for drugs to be incorporated into growing hair. You should therefore sit out all the anxiety if your last smoke were recent.
Blood tests, on the other hand, could be advantageous due to their small detection window. The later the screening, the harder it will be to detect crack in your bloodstream.
The same goes for saliva tests, which have a limited detection window and are less sensitive to low drug concentrations, increasing the chances of false negative results.
Prepare your body.
Once you know you are due for a drug test, you have to prepare your body to pass the test. With every day that passes, you are either increasing your chances of a positive or negative result.
In most cases, you will likely get a warning or schedule for the test. Depending on when your last puff of crack was, way out whether the designated day of the test and the type of test would give a positive result.
If the stake is high for a positive test result, implement the following hacks to help your body flush out crack toxins:
1. Hydrate
There is no better way to cleanse your system than by drinking water. Accompany this with vitamin B pills on the test day to prevent your urine from looking suspiciously too clear.
However, for an avid user, no amount of water could thoroughly wash out crack metabolites from your system.
Check out our recent article on how to cleanse your body of cocaine.
2. Put extra effort into peeing.
Drinking lots of water stimulates your body to urinate, which helps flush out metabolites. When you’re sleeping, drug metabolites build up in your body. This is why your first stream of urine after sleeping is always concentrated and colored.
Urinating before taking the sample is recommended to flush out the stream carrying concentrated metabolites. Plenty of water will also dilute your urine, leaving a low concentration that the test may not detect.
You can also speed this up by dosing heavily on diuretics such as coffee and tea.
Know which test resonates with your situation if you have the liberty to choose.
If the institution requiring your test results is kind enough to accommodate your choice of drug test, your chances of passing the test are a notch higher.
The method you choose should depend on how much you smoked, how long ago the smoke was, and how much you think might still be in your system.
Luckily, this write-up has empowered you sufficiently to make the ideal choice. Additionally, you can always purchase a saliva or urine test kit to test at home and prepare yourself up front.
Conclusively, it is imperative to note that with the current advancements in technology, it is almost impossible to alter the composition of your test sample as the system will detect it.
