this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2025
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I am in the job market and was wondering what your strategies are?

Honestly this has always been a serious source of stress for me. Pot is a true medicine to me that really helps with my particular issues. As both a chunky person and daily smoker its very hard for me to abstain for the ~two months needed. Even then its not gurenteed out of your system right?

So I always went with synthetic and its always a stressful day going in and hoping for the best somehow worrying I'll get caught and jailed. I hate it hate it hate it.

Now a days I hear that because medical is so normalized lots of companies either don't care or have policies for it. I hear stories on the internet of how people just straight admit in the interview and ask if its okay. Do any of you actually go for this strategy?

Detox never seemed right to me. Combination of snake oil marketing and flushing out your system really fast seems sketchy.

The way drug test are implemented has never seemed fair or put in place for a good reason beyond company insurance policy requiring it. Coke heads, alcoholics, pill poppers, shrooms munchers, cigarette smokers, none of them get shafted like us pot smokers do on the piss test. Its kind of unjust if it targets one demographic way harder than others.

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Your job is wants to collect your fkin Urine? That's a major invasion of privacy! I would not work at a company doing this.

[–] stinky@redlemmy.com 1 points 5 days ago
[–] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 60 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I live in Canada where this lunacy isn’t even a thought people have. Drug testing is ridiculous. Individuals who require secret level security clearance here don’t even get tested.

I have no answer for you so I’m sorry. I’m just mad you have to even consider any of this.

[–] Pandantic@midwest.social 15 points 1 week ago

This needs to go in the “Things Americans aren’t ready to hear” topic. 😭

[–] tamethecoach@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

Came here to say this. My first job was working as a contractor working with border services and required security clearance, the most I had to do was get my fingerprints done. The fact that someone looking for anything but very specialized jobs had to think about this is unimaginable to me.

[–] IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world 42 points 1 week ago (3 children)

If a prospective employer wants me to piss in a cup then that's a pretty big red flag that I'm not going to be a good fit for that culture. Trust works both ways. Also, it's just plain weird.

[–] pearsaltchocolatebar 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Depends on the job. My old one just did it to keep clients happy and ignored weed. The owner said he wouldn't do drug tests at all if it wasn't required by their contracts.

[–] Bassman1805@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Yeah, if your company does government contracts then they probably need to do a cursory test just to keep up appearances.

[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 week ago

Yeah, drug tests are a hard pass for me. Only thing that kind of sucks it that a CDL might be useful but that requires regular testing, too.

[–] faltryka@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A lot of this depends upon the industry and position. An employer can find that they are paying higher insurance premiums if they can’t prove that they put due diligence into ensuring that their workforce isn’t getting high before that forklift accident.

It’s not about trust, it’s about what’s cheaper.

[–] IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

It is about trust. You're saying that employers are making decisions where they're trusting their employees less in return for money.

If it was about the wellbeing of the company they would be testing C suite execs as they have the power to ruin a company yet they don't get tested at all in my experience.

[–] riodoro1@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I don’t live in a fucking dystopia where getting a mall clerk job requires you to pass a pot test. Jesus guys, how are you not revolting?

[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 6 points 1 week ago

some are pretty revolting

[–] AreaKode@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Working for a school district, there's a reason we don't drug test. Can't do that if you want teachers. Lol. If I were to apply for a new job, I'd say it's medical. I have a Med card in my state.

[–] pearsaltchocolatebar 11 points 1 week ago

I worked in restaurants in high school and the idiot owner of one wanted to start drug testing.

I took a poll, and he would have had to fire like 70% of the day shift and 90% of the night shift. If they had tested for alcohol they would have to fire everyone.

[–] Yokozuna@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

If you're serious about it, stop smoking when you start looking for a job. When/if you land the job feel it out for a few months and if you feel comfortable then start again. Taking a break every now and then is good for you, and if it's to better yourself for a job then all the better.

[–] Pillagenplunder@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

Quick fix from your closest head shop, follow the instructions. Has worked for me for the last 20 years, even specific gravity tests

[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If the job is under the mistaken notion that an employee's off-time weed use has something to do with their employment, they can correct their mistake or hire a bitch.

[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago

Yeah, I'd rather piss on them than piss in a cup for them.

Doesn't matter if I were actually using or not. It's none of their business.

[–] bizzle@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

I always used fake urine. I copped to being medical once at an interview and the lady told me I was wasting her time lmfao

I got so tired of bullshit that I ultimately started my own business, I'm never going to drop myself.

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's obviously dumb to require a drug test as a condition for employment. With that said, if you can't go a few weeks with partaking, you're now talking about addiction.

[–] cheers_queers@lemm.ee 2 points 6 days ago (2 children)

easy to say if you don't live with debilitating pain i guess. going 3 months without the only thing that makes my life comfortable would be miserable. i COULD do it, but i don't want to be forced to because of some horse shit policy

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 2 points 6 days ago

Agreed, that's definitely an exception.

[–] Smokeydope@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Thank you for saying this. I had similar thoughts when I read this when considering over my personal situation but was worried it was copium thinking. Glad I'm not the only one who thinks these kind of statements as un-nuanced.

Do people who think like this consider those with depression or severe ADHD or insomniacs who take their medication daily as evidence of addiction as well?

I can stop any time without symptoms of severe withdraw, but when I do stop my quality of life diminishes greatly due to the legitimate medical problems I suffer which the pot helps alleviate. Its MEDICINE with relatively few side affects compared to pharma shit.

Now when I smoked cigarettes and had severe body jitters and constant nicotine craving for weeks when I quit? Yeah, thats actual addiction.

Also just subjectively two to three months is not 'a few weeks'. 8-12 weeks is not a short amount of time. I shouldn't have to suffer significant fractions of a year just to jump through arbitrary hoops set by insurance companies.

[–] tomi000@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Live hack: living in a country where employers dont do that shit

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I look for jobs that don't give a shit or don't ask.

That pretty much leaves "unskilled" jobs like retail or foodservice.

[–] cranakis@reddthat.com 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Other fields are not testing or testing and ignoring weed. IT, coding, engineering, most companies aren't screening for weed anymore because they lose out on too much talent.

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Too bad I didn't go to college.

[–] Earflap@reddthat.com 4 points 1 week ago

You don't need to go to college to work in IT.

[–] cranakis@reddthat.com 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I didn't either. It effects how much I make which sucks but I make enough to live.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 4 points 1 week ago

It's rare for anyone to test for weed here since legalization, outside of government jobs or anything overseen by the federal government (like driving trucks which falls under the DOT).

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

What da fuck? None of the above.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

If you have toddlers who are willing to pee for you…

[–] winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago

Fake urine. Used it twice and passed both times. Follow the instructions because it has to be warm enough but not hot.

[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Look for your job in a state that isn't horseshit. 99% of employers don't care if you're looking for work in one of those states.

[–] GiantChickDicks@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

I used a kit from TestClear to successfully pass a drug screening for my current job last year. It was simple to use, and it came with everything I needed to covertly use it. It's not synthetic urine, but dried actual urine.

If you have any questions about the process, please let me know. I'd be happy to help.

[–] cmbabul@lemmy.world -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Detox kit. Always worked for me

[–] Smokeydope@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Would you be comfortable giving some more information on the exact detox procedure and the kit used? Do you have to take niacin to make your pee yellow?

[–] deranger@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Medical lab scientist here. There’s no such thing as a “detox kit”. All you’re doing is drinking enough water to dilute the sample. The detox kit may have vitamins or creatine to help beat tests commonly used to detect dilution, but there’s no “detoxing” occurring. It’s just dilution.

You can drink a lot of water, pop a B vitamin, maybe some creatine, and you’d be just as well off as a detox kit. Frankly unless it’s a high security type position I doubt they’re paying for extra testing for dilution. I recently did one at Quest diagnostics and all they cared about was the temperature.

[–] Smokeydope@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Hey @deranger@sh.itjust.works thank you very much for the great reply. This is valuable information that took more than a moment of your time to write and I'm grateful.

[–] deranger@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Typically I’d recommend one of these two.

Lower risk of getting busted for adulteration: drink lots of water. I like to do a half gallon to gallon of water the day of the test. If you hydrate sooner (eg days before) you won’t need to drink as much the day of the test. Clear urine is good urine anyways, kidney stones are a bitch. If they actually care about dilution they’ll ask you to resubmit. Submitting dilute urine is not a failure, it’s just not a pass. Probably not even tested for unless you’re trying for a top secret job or something like that.

Lower risk of getting busted for dilution: use synthetic urine. Risk here is getting caught with the fake piss or being out of temperature range. Chemically speaking though this is the least risk. Synthetic pee is what they use to calibrate the analyzers and “dipstick”/drop of urine on a card style drug tests. It’s perfect in terms of fooling the analytical lab portion. I used this recently to pass a test and it worked great, but I was paranoid about the temperature (it was perfectly in range, though).

Detox kits are necessarily bullshit but it’s just a more expensive form of dilution and supplementation to beat dilution tests.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Your pee changes colour? To what?

(I have no experience with drugs or drugs tests.)

[–] deranger@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It changes the color from clear to yellow so it passes a visual inspection. The idea is before the test you drink enough water so you’re just peeing near water. You can’t really reduce the amount of THC metabolites in your urine, but you can very effectively increase the amount of water in your urine. This drops the THC metabolite concentration below the positive cutoff level. It looks like water though, so a B vitamin adds color.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 3 points 1 week ago

I misunderstood what was happening, thank you.

[–] Smokeydope@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If you drink a ton of water to detox your pee turns from yellow to crystal clear as its almost pure water without a chance for your body to put in the stuff that make it yellow. Crystal clear piss is one of the tell tale signs of dillution so to hide it people take niacin or vitamins to put some color back in the pee. Hope that clears it up.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 3 points 1 week ago

Oh, I thought THC somehow changed the colour and you were trying to hide that. Got it, thank you.

[–] cmbabul@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

It’s been 4 years since I’ve needed one but if you go on one of the bigger marijuana websites like Leafly or just Google reviews I’m sure you’ll find some good recommendations. I never took niacin and passed no problems for 3 fortune 100s or the private company equivalents. If you’re properly hydrated your pee will be clear anyways

[–] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world -2 points 1 week ago

Do employers still drug test for weed in 2025. They might ask you to piss but they are screening for hard drugs.