Saliva Drug Test: How to Pass It

Drug use these days is quite common for people. While some use recreational drugs at home, many do have crippling addictions. Some people even do drug to the detriments of themselves, their relationships and even others. That is why drug tests are fast becoming common and many people are pushing for wider use of these tests. Drug tests are used to determine if a person has taken any illicit drugs. Once you do determine that someone is taking drugs without any reasonable doubt, and then you can help them. One type of drug test is the saliva test. While this type of test is uncommon these days, there are still places who use them. There are many different things you should know about saliva drug tests, although perhaps the most common thing people ask is how to pass a saliva drug test. While we will be discussing that, let’s first take a look at some basic information and some interesting facts and studies about this test.

About Saliva Drug Tests

A saliva drug test is actually quite similar to a drug test, in terms of detection times, with exceptions to THC and benzodiazepines. In general, saliva tests will only detect drug use for these drug traces for only up to 12 hours. However, this type of test is still effective for other drugs and one test that many people prefer because it is non-invasive and the sample is less likely to be contaminated or switched. For example, with urine drug tests, some people can easily switch their samples for clean ones if the examiner is not looking directly at them or they can even wear certain appliances that can fool the naked eye. With saliva drug tests, the examiner or tester takes a swap and places it into the person’s mouth directly.

saliva drug test

Many scientists have appositive view on the potential of saliva for data collection in general. Some researchers believe that they can find out more about a person from their saliva, even moreso than other fluids. Saliva can also detect things like periodontitis, amoebiasis, and can even be used to test levels of estradiol, progesterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). For drug detection use, however, it is better at detecting very recent use. For example, it can detect alcohol use for up to 12 hours.

 In a 2011 study, a certain type of testing called HBV surface antigen saliva testing had a sensitivity of 93.6% and 92.6%. Saliva is primarily made of secretions from submaxillary (65%), parotid (23%) and sublingual (4%) glands and except for THC and benzodiazepines, can detect drug use in levels similar to blood tests. In a 2011 study, researchers found that saliva drug testing was much more sensitive than urine drug testing and able to detect certain drugs more often, including: N-desmethyldiazepam, amphetamine, methamphetamine, and 6-monoacetylmorphine.

 How to Pass A Saliva Drug Test

Now, of course, what many people want to know is how to pass a saliva drug test. It is very difficult to pass such a test, especially if you are within the 24 hour window where it can detect the drugs in your system.

 However, there are actually some ways to do it. When you take any type of substance, your body does not immediately get rid of it. It may not be able to remove traces from immediately and the remaining substances goes to your fluids, like urine, blood, etc. and even to your hair and nails. Drug tests work by trying to look for those traces in those fluids so the first and the easiest way to do it would be to wait. If you have taken it recently, try to delay your test for at least a day. Saliva drug tests are very effective for up 24 hours since you took the drug, and so if you could delay the testing, then you can increase your chances of passing this test. Delay it for as long as you can. Another method would be to help your body get rid of the drug traces as soon as possible. If you have a very fast metabolism, you might actually be able to get rid of the drug traces sooner than most people. You can also try and drink a lot of water and try to sweat it out in a sauna or by going to gym and sweating it out. You can also try some cleansing juice and pills to help you release those drug traces. Of course some want to know a 100% effective way on how to pass a saliva drug test. However, there is no sure way to do it, unless you pre-test. You can purchase a home kit from the Internet or drug store and see for yourself before submitting to an actual test.

How Long Can Marijuana Be Detected in the Body?

Drug testing is the process of checking if a person has ingested illicit drugs and if he or she has it in the system. This works by taking a sample from the person, like urine, blood, or even hair, and testing it for drug traces. See, when a person takes drugs, his or her body cannot metabolize all the chemicals immediately. Rather, it stays around the body for a while until the body can push it out. Drug testing works by trying to detect these drug traces before the body has a chance to completely metabolize them. Of course, the next question now is, how long before the body can do this and how much time do you need before a drug test can pick it up? It depends on a few factors and you have to be specific about which drugs. So, let’s discuss on of the most popular and controversial drugs – marijuana. Exactly how long until a marijuana drug test detects THC in your sample? Let’s take a look.


Marijuana in the System

Marijuana actually doesn’t stay too long in the system but there are many factors you have to consider, including: frequency, dosage, and last time of use, as well as invidual genetic makeup and metabolism. Sometimes, even how the type of test matters, as some tests can pick up THC in a few days, while others in a few hours. If you have only used the drug once, a marijuana drug test’s detection time could be anywhere from two to three days, even after a week. If it’s a blood marijuana drug test, then the detection time is considerably shorter, up to 24 hours. Saliva tests on the other hand, can detect only up to 2 to 24 hours. Now, if you are a more frequent users, then the detection times are significantly higher. Some tests can detect it up to two weeks, others up to 100 days. Again, it all depends on your metabolism and the type of test.

Test Types

Now, the one thing you really won’t be able to predict is the sensitivity of the test the lab plans to use. Most places use the 10-panel urine screen, which, aside from THC, tests for 10 other commonly-abused drugs, and also the SAMHSA-5. Most labs in the US use a 50 ng/mL cutoff for THC. If you are an occasional or one-time user, than you probably wont’ test positive after 3 to 4 days and for frequent users, about 1 week. Now, tougher labs have a higher sensitivity marijuana drug test. They use a 20 ng/mL concentration and can detect drug use for occasional users up 7 days and 21 days for more frequent users. But, in some extreme cases, when it comes to the urine marijuana drug test, it might be able to detect use in very frequent users for more than 30 days. Believe it or not, some types of dietary supplements, like zinc, can mask THC so it cannot be detected by marijuana drug tests.

One misconception people have about drug tests is that it detects THC in the system. The more accurate depiction would be that it detects THC-COOH, which is the non-psychoactive metabolite. This metabolite can stay in the system for long periods of time without harming the person. This is why marijuana is so easy to detect in a person, because of the THC-COOH’s tendency to stay in the body.

Other Interesting Facts

There are a few interesting facts you might want to know about marijuana. First, registered weed researchers are allowed to grow marijuana for science. In 2014, the NIDA projects that they need about 600 kg of weed to conduct their research. Surprisingly, the government is the largest grower of marijuana in the US, about 1400 pounds. The federal government of the United States has a pot farm in Mississippi where they grow all this marijuana for research purposes.