Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain
Speaker 1: stuff is Christian saga here. Let's say you are a
Speaker 1: user of illicit drugs. You've applied for a job and
Speaker 1: a drug tests required as a condition for employment. Even
Speaker 1: in states where recreational marijuana is legal, employment can still
Speaker 1: be denied to people who use it as well as
Speaker 1: you know, of course harder drugs. You're thinking of borrowing
Speaker 1: a buddy's urine maybe, or more extremely ordering clean urine
Speaker 1: off the internet. But will that actually let you pass
Speaker 1: the test? A lot depends on the collection in detection
Speaker 1: methods used by the lab in question. Let's say you
Speaker 1: successfully get the urine in the deposit cup within the
Speaker 1: allotted time. Would you get away with it? Well? In
Speaker 1: this case probably not. Reputable drug testing facilities followed Department
Speaker 1: of Transportation guidelines which require collectors to establish a chain
Speaker 1: of custody, which involves taking an immediate temperature reading of
Speaker 1: the specimen. So while exterior proximity to your body might
Speaker 1: keep the urine on the warm side, it's not likely
Speaker 1: that it would have fallen anywhere near the required temperature range.
Speaker 1: The DOT also requires that nothing should be taken inside
Speaker 1: the collection area. No purses, backpacks, or outerwear pockets must
Speaker 1: also be emptied. Sometimes workers also conduct a visual examination,
Speaker 1: checking specifically the top of the belt line and sock areas,
Speaker 1: because those are the most commonplaces people store fake and
Speaker 1: borrowed urine. Apparently, but there's no limit to what people
Speaker 1: will do to beat a drug test. Some will buy
Speaker 1: powdered urine on the internet to mix with water. Most
Speaker 1: facilities do tests in rest rooms without water access to
Speaker 1: worth this in addition to not allowing people to take
Speaker 1: any water inside, so they also try to add water
Speaker 1: from the toilet tank. The end result is a bluish
Speaker 1: green sample because d O T guidelines require that there's
Speaker 1: blue tank water coloring in these toilet tanks for exactly
Speaker 1: this purpose. Now, others may buy a product that claims
Speaker 1: to cleanse your urine, but all it really does is diluted,
Speaker 1: or they'll get some underwear that has a space to
Speaker 1: hold the fake urine. It's not surprising, then, that some
Speaker 1: facilities conduct observed testing, where a worker is present to
Speaker 1: actually witness the deposit, either from the very beginning or
Speaker 1: after a deceptive attempt has been made. Of course, if
Speaker 1: the lab doesn't observe strict standards, it may still be
Speaker 1: possible to game the system. Today's episode was written by
Speaker 1: Aliya Hoyt, produced by Tristan McNeil and For more on
Speaker 1: this and other topics, please visit us at how stuff
Speaker 1: dot com