If you’ve got an urgent drug test to carry out, you know well that is what stake. Labs claim that they can test for drugs using the much-touted urine test. Like many people, maybe you think of beating the labs at their own game. But with all the hype about how these labs identify synthetic urine, you want some reliable info on how and if the labs can identify fake urine.
The whole issue depends on the methods and challenges that testing labs use to test synthetic urine and how they detect synthetic urine. If the methods do not match tasks, and the manufacturers and users are staying ahead of the labs, this synthetic urine-detection is a hoax. Let’s consider the facts.
How Labs Attempt to Detect Synthetic Urine
It’s a fact that many people use synthetic urine to subvert the drug testing process, so you won’t e the first one. The labs and authorities know this. For this reason, some labs and the same authorities in this field continue to develop technologies and approaches in specimen validity testing or SVT. This screening approach is meant to ensure the integrity of the screening process. In short, they want to know whether the sample you present is your genuine pee or its synthetic urine.
To achieve this, some labs have even patented what they claim is a screening technology for oxidizing any contaminants in the urine samples given to them by the people getting tested. But whether this has been an effective strategy to curb the use of synthetic urine is a different issue altogether.
It’s essential to understand synthetic urine ingredients to appreciate why the method isn’t useful in eliminating this habit.
Fake urine is water that has been fortified with several constituents such as salts, creatinine, and yellowing color to give the appearance and characteristics of human urine. All these components are present in genuine human urine. So they cannot form a basis for the labs to claim a sample is fake urine.
In any case, the labs’ failure to effectively identify this urine is evident in their continued attempts to come up with additional proposals of new chemical tests of specimen validity. What’s even more telling is that the testing labs have rarely used these additional proposals in their attempt to out-perform the manufacturers and users of synthetic urine.
Manufacturers of fake urine are aware of what the labs are trying to do, and they, too, have responded to the challenge. The makers of fake urine continue to add other constituents to their synthetic products to defeat the labs in this business and make synthetic urine that works. And the manufacturers have remained ahead of the labs.
Can a Drug Test Detect Synthetic Urine?
The labs’ own failure to develop, implement, an effective synthetic urine detection formula, and the manufacturers’ attempts to stay ahead of the labs make it impossible to detect artificial urine. A few key considerations suffice to demonstrate why synthetic urine detection continues to be a mirage that the labs are chasing fruitlessly.
- To get actual drug test results, its best to have the test done by a provider that carries out specimen validity in a credible and certified lab. Such labs boast of regular inspection throughout the year and that they take part in proficiency testing programs. These testing programs are meant to ascertain the lab’s ability and capacity to perform accurate specimen validity testing.
Such efforts might sound useful, but they fade into insignificance compared to what the synthetic urine manufacturers are doing. These wise business entities continue to develop systems and products that are undetectable in standard urine detection tests.
Sadly, for the labs and happily for the manufacturers and users of these products, the scientific experts holed up in the labs have to keep monitoring new generations of synthetic urine and adjust their detection efforts accordingly.
- There is a lot of catching up as far as the labs are concerned. For instance, the lack of an industry-wide consensus or regulatory standard defines a urine sample as substituted or synthetic. This fact poses a significant challenge to the labs and scientific community, especially when there are other urinary constituents’ deficient levels.
- The urine collection process is not entirely observable. It might be monitored but not openly observed. You won’t have a lab expert staring directly in front of you as you get your urine specimen. Thanks for your privacy. The experts will only follow some protocols and identify unusual or suspicious activities in the process, such as the temperature range of the sample you present or if you overstay in the restroom as you get your sample.
If the labs could identify synthetic urine so far, they would not be going that far to identify such suspicious behavior in the restroom. They are still doing so because they know – no, they cannot – synthetic urine is not detectable in the lab.
- The indisputable fact is that you, anybody else, can effectively substitute your real pee with synthetic urine in the privacy of the restroom as long as you are careful with what you do while at the restroom. The labs know there’s little they can do to prevent the substitution of genuine urine that s free from drug metabolites and drugs.
So if you are still wondering how labs detect synthetic urine, the truth is, no, they cannot. The only thing that the labs can do is have highly trained professional urine collectors who are capable of ensuring legitimate and subversion-free collection experience. That is a tall order.
Alternative Drug Testing Specimen Types
Due to this failure to detect synthetic urine and to ensure the legitimacy and accuracy of the collection process, labs have been thinking of alternative drug testing specimens. This reality is a true mark of defeat. That’s why there’s been thought of using hair and oral fluid as alternative specimens for drug testing.
The thinking behind these suggestions is that hair and oral fluid collections can be observed, reducing the possibility of subversion. But there’s a problem here too. The effectiveness of oral fluid in effectively detecting drug use is constrained. The detection has a somewhat shorter detection window when depending on the metabolite or drug.
There is no consensus on whether it’s necessary to observe oral fluids or hair collection.
Final Thoughts
It is clear that what the labs and the experts claim they can do to detect synthetic urine, no they cannot. If they had a fool-proof way of doing so, they wouldn’t be trying different approaches and methods to it. The labs would not try to catch up with the manufacturers as they try to outsmart one another.
In a nutshell, next, you want to use synthetic urine for your tests, go ahead and get yourself the best quality kit and walk confidently to the restroom. However, a word of caution, you have to be extremely careful not to raise any suspicion.
Most importantly, follow all the instructions carefully and ensure you get a sample that reflects your real urine’s actual characteristics. If you do so, you don’t have to worry about the lab detecting your synthetic urine.
