Drug users are the most convincing people in the world; we see this every day at our clinic. Those that get the news they tested positive swear that they don’t do drugs, and those we catch trying to cheat try to convince us the specimen they gave us came out of their body, even though our training tells us otherwise. Its human nature to give people the benefit of the doubt, but this cant be done in the drug testing world. Training and science are always on our side. That being said, we have heard many excuses over the years after we catch someone trying to cheat a drug test. Most of them involve needing to leave immediately after we reject their first specimen; whether it be a doctor’s appointment, needing to get to work, or even sick relatives. Some people even claim that their grandparents pass away conveniently after we call them out for trying to cheat their drug test. Of course, we have no way of knowing if any of these situations are true, but the timing suggests they are not. We can’t bend the rules for anyone, even if it does mean they will be late for a doctor’s appointment or late to their job. If the person taking a drug test leaves before giving a specimen the collector will accept, it’s a refusal which is the same as a positive, no exceptions.

Recently, we rejected a specimen from a donor because the temperature was out of range. The First Choice collector informed the donor that he could drink water until he was ready to try again. The donor then informed our collector it was unlikely that he would be able to produce another specimen in the allotted time because he only urinates once every 4 days. We informed the donor that if he was unable to pee in the next 3 hours, it would be a refusal (which is the same as a positive) and he should probably go see his doctor regarding his unusual urination habits. The next person in line to test was unable to produce a specimen at all, prompting our collector to ask her if she also only urinates once every 4 days as well. Her response: “of course not, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard”.