There are many ways that a drug user will try and cheat a drug test. Although we know about most of them, sometimes we come across a new one.

We recently had a donor come into our clinic for a DOT (Department of Transportation) drug test. People who test under DOT include truck drivers, pilots, some railroad workers, etc. The federal government has many regulations for DOT drug tests, so it’s a bit more serious than your average drug test. This particular donor began his drug test just like anyone else.

We have a filing cabinet in our testing room secured with Velcro so our donors have a safe place to put their belongings but are not able to tamper with their sample.

Recently, a woman came in to test for her employer. After she entered the restroom, the collector heard her urinating and everything sounded normal. However, she remained in the bathroom for a long time, much longer than was necessary. When she emerged, the urine she presented to the collector was bright yellow, similar in color to Mellow Yellow. All other indicators that we check, other than the color, were correct.

My brother owns a convenience store and recently called me to tell me about an incident he encountered. He sells hot hands hand warmers even in the summer which is not that unusual because he has several patrons that work in cold storage facilities and use them year round.

He had a customer come in recently and ask for some hot hands. My brother proceeded to ask him which cold storage facility he worked at, he replied none. He said he used the hot hands to pass a drug test. He pours clean urine in a bottle and then puts the hot hands against the bottle and tapes it to his leg. By doing this, he is able to keep the urine warm. He went on to say he’s used this method multiple times to thwart a drug test (by the way- he does not test at First Choice!). He even said that on occasion the temperature became too hot and scalded his leg.

A couple of years back we had a father bring his son in for a drug test; we do lots of drug testing for parents but this guy’s son looked to be in his mid-twenties. The son gave us a urine specimen we would not accept, I do not remember exactly why we wouldn’t accept it but I am sure it was out of temperature range, or we there was some other factor that led us to believe it did not come out of his body. The father insisted he give another specimen; I am not sure why and it always baffles me when a parent is insistent on having a positive drug test result from us when they just got their answer when their child (or adult child) tried to cheat.