Testing urine of employees for the presence of a drug or its metabolite is a common practice in workspaces today as it appears to be vital in ensuring that employees are not under the influence of illicit drugs and are in a good mental state to carry out daily activities. The presence of drugs, both illegal and prescribed, including marijuana, can be detected with simple less diluted urine samples.
However, a urine sample can be diluted in that it contains too much water which makes the concentration of the urine weak, making it ineffective in a drug test. A simple dilute urine definition is a urine sample with too much water. Drug testing laboratories generally have extreme difficulty processing urine samples with extremely high water concentrations as not only drug samples will be very hard to detect, even normal components of urine will also be hard to detect in diluted urine samples.
While urine dilution can be intentionally done to make illicit drugs difficult to detect in a urine sample, there are various other unintentional or accidental causes of urine dilution. These include:
Therapeutic fluid intake
People generally understand the significance of maintaining a healthy fluid balance. Therefore, consuming large quantities of water is typical. If you consume a lot of water, you risk being overhydrated. All of that pure water will get pumped through your system and out of you in the form of urine.
If you drink a lot of water, your urine will get diluted since the water content will increase. The concentration of urine is greatly diminished by the presence of water, making it less useful for detecting drugs. Drugs are almost completely absent from very watered-down, diluted urine samples.
Preparation for Urine test
An individual may be asked to return for a second or third urine sample if the first one is insufficient. Some individuals may ingest large quantities of water prior to taking the sample to ensure they have sufficient pee for the sample especially when their bladder is already empty and are not feeling pressed to urinate.
Use of Medications
The kidney is primarily responsible for making urine in the body. Some medications such as diuretics, used in treating certain conditions like high blood pressure, exert their effects on the kidney, thereby producing more urine volume with high concentration of water. They cause the body to produce more pee, which watered down urine. Also, beverages such as coffee and tea can exert such effects on the body diuretics.
Medical Conditions
As already stated, urine is primarily produced in the kidney. There are various disease conditions that can lead to the production of high volumes of diluted urine. One of these conditions is diabetic insipidus where the kidney is unable to concentrate the urine, thereby leading to the production of a high volume of diluted urine samples.
How do testers detect diluted drug tests?
When urine is diluted, it tends to take on a paler or whiter color than normal concentrated urine. Dilute urine is characterized by a number of factors in addition to its transparency, and is therefore considered to be abnormally low in concentration. However, urine analysis referred to as validity checks allow lab personnel to identify if the urine concentration has been tampered with.
Depending on the volume of urine required for a drug test, employers can identify attempts to falsify findings. Specific urine analysis parameters such as specific gravity and creatinine in the urine can be used for these validity tests.
- Specific Gravity: this is an important measure of the concentration of urine in urine analysis. The specific gravity of urine is a measure of the ratio of the amount of water to the total number of components. The typical range for specific gravity in urine is between 1.0020 and 1.030. Specimens with specific gravities below 1.0010 or above 1.0200 are classified as diluted.
- Creatinine: Muscles produce creatinine as a waste product of metabolism. It’s produced when the amino acid creatine is broken down. Creatinine is eliminated from the body by the kidneys, which then excrete it in the urine. Having a greater concentration of creatinine in your urine indicates a higher overall level of creatinine in your body. This insight then allows us to test for sample dilution factors. The range for creatinine concentrations in dilute urine is 2- 20 mg/dL as normal urine should have a creatinine level between 20 and 40 mg/dL.
What Does Negative Dilute Drug Test Result Mean?
Results from diluted drug tests can be positive or negative. Understanding the distinction between a positive result and a negative-dilute specimen is crucial. Urine specimens with a negative dilute result contain a higher quantity of water than is typical. This can happen if you drink too much water, on purpose or by mistake, which removes the yellow tint from your urine.
It is difficult to determine the presence of drugs and their metabolites in the urine due to the negative-dilute specimen. A diluted negative result on a drug test could be cause for concern. If an individual has a negative-dilution result on the job, the firm may force them to retake the test. The donor drank a lot of water before the test (though one could wonder why). There is a chance that business owners will assume you diluted your urine in order to pass a test.
What Does Positive Dilute Drug Test Result Mean?
The term “positive dilute drug test” describes a urine sample that tested positive for a specific drug metabolite while also having a larger amount of water than is normal for human urine. According to a research done by Scott E. Hadland et al, A positive result can be obtained from a urine sample even if it is diluted, albeit this may result in the overlooking of chemicals present in trace amounts.
A urine sample may test positive for the presence of marijuana but be too weak to detect trace amounts of cocaine. If a drug test comes back positive after being diluted, it is still regarded as positive for the presence of drug metabolites.
Any steps taken in response to a positive dilute result will also be taken in response to a positive test result. There will be laboratory confirmatory analysis and involvement from a medical review officer. You should give special attention to producing urine of sufficient clarity to pass a negative test. Even if you’re a responsible user, a positive test result won’t help you get the job or license for which you’re applying.
Tips to avoid Negative Dilute Drug Tests
Here are some things to try the morning of drug test to do’s to ensure that you don’t fail because of cheating:
- It’s best to avoid drinking too much water right before a test to avoid getting a false negative result and having your sample thrown out.
- First-thing-in-the-morning pee is best because of its high concentration.
It is also important to know the tricks that businesses use to ensure that their prospective hires pass a urine drug test. You can use this data to speculate about any hidden challenges you might face.
- Randomize the timing of your pee tests so that your subject has little notice and no opportunity to dilute their sample.
- Urine tampering can be prevented if test-takers are not allowed to bring in any kind of personal things.
- Individuals being tested should abstain from fluids and diuretics for at least two hours prior to sample collection.
How Much Water Causes a Dilute Drug Test?
You might be wondering how much water to dilute urine for drug test? A definitive answer to the common question has not been determined. Some say that if you drink eight glasses of water right before a drug test, you won’t register positive. Some estimates put it at 24 ounces. They’re on the subdued side, to say the least. On the other hand, there are individuals who argue that consuming anywhere from 2 liters to 4 liters will dilute a drug test result.
In an effort to pass a drug test, some people would drink even more liters of water and urinate multiple times beforehand. Naturally, we all know that there are potential health dangers associated with drinking large quantities of water rapidly.
If you need a diluted urine sample for a test, here’s the formula: drink water until your pee is clear. If your pee is getting excessively transparent, try taking some vitamin B2 (riboflavin). Sending your pee for testing without raising suspicions is a plus. If the lab gives you a weak result, you have time to clean up your body before taking another test.
Dilution Techniques for Drug Tests
Urine samples for drug testing are analyzed for purity and chemical make-up. The amount of pee produced is of little concern. To pass a drug test for weed when you are a frequent user, diluting your urine is one option. With the combination of several tried and true methods, you might be able to dilute your urine merely enough to avoid detection. These methods include:
Dilution
The process of diluting something is the simplest of all of them. Hours before the exam, you should drink a lot of water. There is a chance you won’t fail a drug test because your pee is so dilute from all the water you drink and the drug metabolites will have been diluted out.
Detoxification
The term “detoxification” refers to the elimination of harmful substances from the body in a healthy manner. Detoxing a few days before an exam might be accomplished by consuming coffee and high-fiber foods. Furthermore, there are potent detox medications that perform miracles for those attempting to pass a drug test. To get your urine clean for testing, detoxification is a considerably slower process. It could take as little as an hour or as long as several days.
Delay
In order to pass a drug test, postponing it is the least effective strategy. To do this, you simply put off taking the test until your body has had time to rid itself of any illicit substances. Put off the test until after the window of detection for the substances you’ve taken has passed. For specifics on the time frames during which various substances can be detected, see the table below.
Reliability of Diluted Urine in Passing a Drug Screen
Many individuals assume that providing a watered-down urine sample is a relatively unnoticeable approach to pass a drug screening. So, some try to lessen the effects by drinking excessively or even directly diluting their urine with water. However, how trustworthy is this method?
Keep in mind that there is a set amount of time that any drug will be in your system. In other words, it will take a lot more work than dilution to get rid of toxins if you try to get rid of them faster than they’d inevitably be gotten rid of from the body. In addition, since Cannabis metabolites are accumulated in adipose tissue, those with a higher body mass index will have a more difficult time flushing the toxins out of their systems.
The pace at which toxins are eliminated from the body is also affected by a variety of other biological parameters. Dilution is a natural and risk-free method of cleansing the body, but it is not as fast or efficient as you might have thought. If you really want to pass a drug test, you should look into more foolproof strategies, such as using detox kits designed for that purpose.
How long do you need to be clean to pass a urine drug test
Avoiding drugs altogether may be the simplest strategy for passing a drug screening. Abstinence from drugs especially for at least the detection window period of these substances before taking a urine test will ensure that you pass the urine drug test. This is due to the fact that the specific time of detection of various drugs in a urine test, also known as detection windows, are significantly shorter compared to those for drug tests performed on blood or hair. There is a specific range of time for each illicit drug in which they can be detected in the urine. Urine drug tests can detect substances used within these specific time limits, depending on how recently you last used them. Below, there is the detection window for various substances in a urine sample:
| Illicit Substances | Detection window in a urine sample |
| Cocaine | Up to 72 hrs |
| Codeine | Up to 72 hrs |
| Ecstasy | Up to 4 days |
| Heroin | Up to 72 hrs |
| Ketamine | Up to 11 days |
| Marijuana | Up to 30 days |
| Methamphetamine | Up to 7 days |
| Morphine | Up to 3 days |
Frequently asked questions
If I pass a home drug test will I pass a LabCorp test?
A major source of worry for many of these people is marijuana’s notoriously long detection window in the body. That’s why they want to practice at home first. It should be made clear that a positive result on a drug test administered at home is no assurance of a negative result on a drug test administered in a laboratory.
The accuracy and precision of a professional lab are far superior to those of a home drug test. It’s similar to licking your finger and holding it up in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. You can probably tell which way the wind is blowing, but that doesn’t mean you should go out on the open seas. You should usually rely on a professional who is employing high-tech equipment such as LabCorp. LabCorp’s testing facilities employ cutting-edge equipment to ensure reliable results since they value precision.
How much urine is needed for a drug test for employment?
If you are wondering how much pee needed for drug test, well, a standard urine drug test typically requires at least 30 ml of urine to be obtained for screening and confirmatory analysis in a standard laboratory setting. The collected urine is subsequently placed in a sealed container that can detect any attempt to open it. The laboratory receives the drug test specimen for screening and confirmatory tests.
Is clear pee good?
Having urine that is clear in color generally indicates that your body is getting enough water. This is great news because staying hydrated is one of the best ways to ensure your body is operating at peak efficiency. However, too much water consumption might cause the opposite effect, and lead to the production of less concentrated urine which may lead to negative dilute urine warranting a possible call back for another urine drug test.
Summary
The fact still remains, if you try to pass a pee test by diluting your urine, especially in a crude way, you almost certainly won’t pass. If you try to water down a test, for instance, you’ll likely be subjected to a lot of other tests including temperature and creatinine, as well as maybe extra confirmation tests.
Results from the original test may be thrown off by the adulteration or dilution, but further tests to verify the results’ validity will likely reveal the issue. Although diluting your urine by drinking a lot of water before a drug test can seem like a clever strategy, it never works.
Taking too much water before a drug test might lead to false positives or even death. It’s not a good situation for everyone involved, including your boss. When urine is tampered with, it is not just feasible to dilute it. It’s important to rule out any medical issues that could cause you to have weak urine before taking a test. Therefore, it is a no-brainer that abstinence is still the best way to pass a urine drug test.