Federal drug tests (aka DOT tests) are regulated by the federal government. As with many things run by the government, there are many, many rules that the laboratories, employers, and even the drug test collectors must follow. Some of these rules, as you can imagine, seem pointless. An example of one of the rules that seems pointless but does have a purpose is something the donor must do at the beginning of every DOT drug test. Before the collector gives the donor a cup to pee in, the collector must instruct the donor to wash their hands… That’s right, they have to wash their hands BEFORE the test. This rule is designed to prevent the donor from having a foreign substance on their hands or embedded in their fingernails – a substance they may then use to attempt to adulterate their urine specimen while in the restroom.

The collectors at First Choice undergo a lot of training to ensure that the person coming to work for your company is drug-free. Most of this training is passed from collector to collector, and some of it comes from online tutorials. However, all the training in the world cannot prepare you for some of the things we see at First Choice.

The last thing an employed drug user wants to do is pee in a cup. They will go to extreme lengths to defraud or not take the drug test. Their livelihood is on the line. We often tell stories about someone trying to pass off someone else’s urine as their own, but what if they don’t have a chance to get clean pee? What if the drug test is unannounced? What if they are escorted to take a test or a collector comes to their work to test them?

The most common way that people try to cheat a drug test is by using someone else’s urine or by substituting a synthetic urine. Yes, there are MANY synthetic urines out there available for purchase. Our collectors are highly trained and perform drug tests all day every day so they know what a “real” sample looks like.