Blood Drug Testing

How accurate are lab drug tests?

I passed an at home drug test you get in the drug store. It says its cut off point for marijuana is 50 ng/ml. Is that about as accurate as lab drug tests? I am trying to apply for a job and was wondering if I would be able to pass their drug test, since I did pass the at home one. Why can't people answer the question instead of saying drugs are bad, mmmmkay?

Public Comments

1. Don't do drugs. Noob.
2. lab tests are very accurate. if you want a job then quit doing the stuff you should not its easier that way and more healthy to.
3. look up the home drug kit you got on the computer.That might tell you.
4. Nope, the drug test they do in labs are much more powerful useully weed takes about a week to get out of your system. but sometimes you can get lucky and pass them, but very risky.
5. Employment drug tests are notoriously inaccurate. I know many people who smoke weed habitually and have only known one who got caught on a drug test. He smoked a blunt the night before. I personally have smoked 3 days before a test and passed. I've taken three tests while in a habitual pot smoking phase and never failed. Don't fret. If you're still worried, just don't smoke for a few days. Drink plenty of fluids to expedite the excretion of THC from your system. THC is stored in fat (which is why it's harder to get rid of than most other drugs), so if you really want to get rid of it try running a few miles. You might notice a mild high after doing this if you've been smoking a lot lately. That's the THC being released into your bloodstream after the fat molecules it is in solution with break down.
6. Our lab's cutoff is 5 ng/ml... So you could very easily pass your home test and flunk ours...
7. Different tests have different accuracy rates. I doubt that a home test is as accurate as a job test would be.
8. Licensed labs are supposed to be at least 96% accurate, but who really knows. Some labs do the sink test. which means giving phony results. TLC and Forensic testing is considered the most accurate. Home testsa tend to be less accurate
9. The lab test will be MUCH more accurate than that. It will be able to detect much lower ng/ml. It will test at LEAST down to 5 ng/ml if not lower. Passing the home drug test will basically show you are not high RIGHT NOW. Passing a lab test will require you to have not consumed marijuana (or any other drug) for a substantially longer period of time.... (days at least)
10. I agree with the PO from Indiana and you should not assume some drug test you can take at home will be assessed the same for a job or by someother entity. It really depends on the drug test you are taking. If they ask for a hair sample you're pretty much screwed. The same is true for a retinal scan if you've smoked in the past 30 days - that test measures the dialation of capillaries in your eyes. It has been proven that people who smoke marijuana, especially, have more dialated capillaries than those who don't. As for a urine test if you go in flushed (like you drank 1/2 a gallon of water that day) you won't show positve. They may ask for a retest though. The test you have the best bet for is an oral swab. Assuming you maintain good oral hygene and have not smoked in the past 3-5 days, most drugs only remain detectible in "significant" amounts in saliva for 72 hours. Don't quote me on that because it also depends on how much you smoke, how long ago you smoked it and how potent it was. In some cases it can be detected up to 30 days, even longer for other tests. Look I'm not here to say "drugs are bad" because we all do drugs, legal or not. But it would greatly increase your odds of passing this test if you stopped smoking the ganja between now and when you get the results back (just incase they ask for a retest). Even then, even if you pass this test, if there is cause to believe that you are high on the job you may be asked to take a random UA. Most employers I know of have a no tollerance policy. And some do random testing anyways. While I agree that is utterly retardid in the case of pot, it will likely come up in the future. Your safest bet is to either quit the buddha, find a different job, or invest heavily in reliable detoxifiers. Incidentally sometimes the test results come back positive, even when you are clean. If you take the test a second time and a significantly less amount of THC shows up they will probably go by the results of the second test. Sweating alot and drinking a lot of water will help. Taking niacin will "burn" it out of your system. But you need to be careful as taking too much can be fatal. So make sure you read the back of the bottle if you go that route. You can take detox teas, but there is little garuntee that anything will work surefire. Most tests are about 97% accurate - but they can be fooled if you're smarter than the average bear.
11. Lab tests are much more accurate than what you can buy over the counter. Why don't you just stop doing drugs? That way you don't have to worry about trying to find a way to weasel through life.