At Home Drug Testing For Accountability

Alright, parents, today I'm gonna solve the issue once and for all. I'm gonna teach you how to do at home drug test. Easily, inexpensively, effectively, and best of all, without an argument, so that you can find out for sure exactly what's going on with your kid. We're gonna cover under what circumstances should you be doing drug tests? When is the best time to do the drug test? Where to buy these at home drug screens for less than $2 apiece, how to interpret the results and even how to respond or whatever results that you get. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Amber Hollingsworth, master addiction counselor, and this is Put the Shovel Down, a YouTube channel designed to helping you understand the psychology of addiction so that you are always five steps ahead of it, because this is your kid we're talking about. So if you haven't already, I'd like to invite you to subscribe to this channel and I'll make for sure that you win this battle. Okay. I'm about to give you some really helpful information, but don't worry, you don't need to write it all down. I've put it all into a guide and at the end of the video I'll tell you how you can download that for free. I think the best place to start is under what circumstances should you be drug testing? Basically, this is why and when should you be testing? If you have a teenager or college student and you suspect that they've been using but you're not sure, or maybe you've caught them once or twice and they told you that they've been being sober and you want to make for sure that's a really good time to use at home drug test, or if your kids been using drugs, has been to treatment, or if this is some sort of ongoing issue, then I want to encourage you to use drug screens regularly. Now, this is really important. You're not going to use these drug screens to try to catch someone doing something bad. That's probably the least effective way to go about doing this. The way you want to think about it is you're trying to use drug screens to prevent them from making a bad choice if they're in recovery or if they've been to treatment in their home. You're trying to prevent them from making another bad choice. So that means it's okay to tell them that you're going to be drug screening them, especially if your kid has been caught doing drugs or they're coming out of a treatment program or something like that. You can say, listen, we're gonna be drug screening you regularly. And by regularly I mean at least once a week. And every now and then I want to encourage you to do like a back to back test. So if you gave one on Monday, go ahead and give one on Tuesday. Because a lot of people after a drug test will start to do what I call drug screen math. And you see, most drugs get out of your system fairly quickly, with the exception of marijuana, and it tends to stay a little longer. But the other ones are pretty hard to catch. So if you gave someone a screen on Wednesday and they didn't think they were going to get another screen till Wednesday, they could be using a whole lot of stuff, trying to time it just right. That's drug screen math. Now, before we talk about how to actually do the drug test, let's talk about where to get them. Now you can go to your local Walgreens, cvs, Walmart, and you can go in the pharmacy department and you can buy drug tests right in this physical store. But in my experience, if you do it that way, it's gonna cost you a pretty penny. You could pay upwards to 40 or 50 bucks for one drug test. And sometimes those only test for one thing. So a better way to go about it is to go ahead and order these online. In fact, I want to encourage you to order them by the box. And there are several advantages to doing it this way. Firstly, when you order a bunch of them, they're a lot less expensive. We usually order them in boxes of 25 or 50 or even 100. Now when you order them in boxes like that, you can usually get the price down to between two and three dollars and sometimes even less, depending on how big of a drug screen that you're getting. And if you have these on hand at home, then it's not going to be any big issue to be doing them regularly because they're not that expensive and you're not going to worry about wasting all the money and having to run to the store and all that kind of stuff. We actually order ours right off of Amazon and I've put the links to the ones that we use in the description below. So if you buy drug test using that link, I will get a little small commission, but it is likely only a few cents. And don't worry, it won't cost you any more money to go that way. Okay, so now let's talk about what you can purchase. So here's what the ones that we buy look like. They look like this. Well, they Actually, when they come, they come in a pack and they look like this. And you can order anywhere from a one drive screen panel, which I don't really recommend, a five panel drug screen, which means it tests for five different things. It's probably the smallest one I'd recommend. Or you can get up to like 20, I think we usually order in our office, we order some five panels and some 10 panels and occasionally we order 12 panels. If you're going to order just the five panel test, a lot of times you can look and you can find different combinations of what drugs you're going to look for. If I were you, I would buy the ones that test for marijuana, opiates, benzodiazepines, amphetamines and cocaine. Those are the main drugs that you're most likely to find. So if you're going to order the five panel, at least get that. Okay, so if you order a five panel, it actually looks like this. Can you see it really closely there? The one I'm showing you right now is actually a 10 panel because it's got. Because it tests for drugs on both sides. If you order a five panel, it'll look just like this, but it'll just have one side. You can actually order drug testing strips for alcohol too, if you're concerned about alcohol. The regular drug tests don't usually test for alcohol. You'll need to order that separate. And if you really want to stay five steps ahead of this, you can order what's called an adulteration strip. So it's basically like, it's like a one little thin plastic strip. If you're concerned that they're tampering with the urine, then you can dip that into the urine and it has a container usually that has some colors, and you sort of line it up there and it'll tell you if everything's in the right ranges. If something's out of whack, then that strip will tell you it's called an adulteration strip. And I put a link to that in the description below as well. They're super inexpensive. I'm going to encourage you to go ahead and get those because once you start the process of regular drug screening, they can get a little sketchy. They're gonna try to get ahead of you, but don't worry, I'm gonna teach you what they're gonna do and say before they even do it. So after you explain to your kid that you're gonna be doing this regular testing, remember you're doing that because it's preventively you're not telling them what day it is. The best time to do a drug test is first thing in the morning. Because it is really hard for someone to say they don't have to pee first thing in the morning. But if for whatever reason you can't catch them in the morning, you can do this at any time of day, it doesn't really matter. The only thing I'm go about that is don't try and test them when they're about five minutes away from having to leave and be somewhere like work or school or some other appointment, something that they have to be to. Because then they're gonna say, okay, I will when I get back, but right now I gotta be to school, I'm gonna be late. You know, I've had so many tardies, if I get one more, I'm going to, I'm gonna have to do seat time or whatever it is. And so it gives them an out. So that way if it's in the middle of afternoon or whenever it is and you say, okay, we're gonna take a drug test. And they say, well, I don't really have to pee right now. I just went say it's totally okay, no trouble, let me get you something to drink. And then just wait. But what you don't want to do is say, hey, we're going to do a drug screen today. And then them say they can't go. And you say, okay, come back, we'll do it tomorrow. I mean really, come on, you're not going to do that. Moving on to the next thing, I want you to know, I really do advise you to have this drug screen witnessed. So if this is your daughter, moms or ladies stand at the bathroom door. Now you don't have to go in and stare them down and be awkward about it, but you can just say, hey, I'll be right out here. You know, leave the door cracked. Or if it's a son, have dad or a male figure do the very same thing. It wouldn't be uncommon for kids or people that know they're going to be drug screened to be keeping urine on hand. For when a drug screen comes. They might keep it in a Mountain Dew can or a Sprite bottle and sometimes even in like a condom. I know, gross, right? But trust me, I've seen it all. There's even something called a wizinator that you can buy online. Now that's going to extremes, but I've seen it happen before. One thing you might be wondering is, wouldn't you want to Do a hair test. Well, this is just my personal experience with that. I don't like hair tests. Number one, takes forever to come back. Number two, they take a big chunk of your hair. Now, if it's me, it wouldn't really matter because I got a ton of hair and you could take it right out from the bottom. But if it's a young man and they have short hair, it's pretty noticeable. And so it takes a long time. You have to use a big chunk of hair. It's quite a bit more expensive. And this is the big reason why I don't like to do it is because I've never really seen a hair test show much of anything. I've literally had people in my office I'm treating that are telling me all the drugs that they're doing go and get a hair sample and it not show anything. So for me, especially if you're going to be doing this on a regular basis, I really do like to use the urine drug screens. I think they're faster, they're easier, they're effective, and you can do them right at home. So now that you have got your urine sample looks like this. In fact, when you order the drug test, they actually, some of them will actually send you little plastic cups like this. Some of them just have the test. You can use a Dixie cup, doesn't matter. But we use these little clear plastic cups. And the reason is, is because you can see it now. I actually put some Mountain Dew in this cup today just for demonstration purposes. But look at it. It's bright yellow, right? Urine doesn't usually look like that. So the first thing you want to do is look at it and be like, well, does that look like urine? Right now you might think this is gross. This just depends on how much of a germaphobe you are. But I've been dealing with urine and pee so long, like, it doesn't bother me at all. So another thing you can do to check, make sure everything's the way it's supposed to be, is you can actually pick the cup up and you'll be able to feel if it's the right temperature. It should be body temperature, it should not scald your hand, and it shouldn't be cold. If one of those two things happen, something sketchy is going down. Now, some of the drug tests that you can order online actually have a little temperature thermometer built right into the cup. But even when I've used those, it's easier for me just to touch the cup because the Temperature thermometer. It looks like one of those, like old school mood rings where it kind of like turns color. And I'm always like, I don't know, like, is that the right color? What does that say? So for me, I just touch it. You know, usually the kid brings it in and I take it from them and I can tell right there if it's the right temperature. Now, in addition to keeping urine on hand, they try to dip the cup also in the toilet water or put a little faucet water or something like that to water it down. There are all kinds of things that people can do to try to cheat drug screens. They can buy certain things to take to clean their system out. There's just lots of things they can do. But here's what I want to tell you about that. Remember, you're doing this mostly to be proactive. And the reason why that's important right here in this conversation is because I don't want you to get overly caught up about making sure that they never get by with any sketchy, shady business. Because even though I'm going to teach you how to stay five steps ahead of it, I don't want you driving yourself totally bonkers about that. Because if you're dealing with a person that has a substance abuse problem, they may get by with that once or twice, but they're not going to be able to get by with that on an ongoing, consistent basis. So I want you to take some standard precautions and be smart about it, but I don't want you to overly obsess about it because you're doing this regularly. Now, here's a little word of caution for you. Sometimes people start out doing this regularly, and then things are going along okay, and they let their guard down and they think, oh, okay, we're past this. And then they stop doing it regularly. It falls off the map. And then the person comes home and they're acting kind of funny one night, a little bit sketchy or something like that. And then you're like, I want you to do a drug test. And then you've just started a big giant fight because now you've made an accusation. So even if things are flowing along smoothly, I want you to continue this just as a regular practice so that when you do it, it's not you saying, I think you're up to something. It's just the standard practice, which is really, really important if you want to be able to pull this off without arguing about it. Okay, so where we at? We got the urine. We've had it witnessed. We've put it in our hand and we've checked the temperature. Now, when you open a brand new drug screen, it looks like this and you have these little windows here and it has letters in them and it tells you what drugs that the drug screen test for. So like for example, THC stands for tetrahydrocannabinoid. I think I'm saying that right, but basically that's marijuana. BZO stands for benzodiazepine. That's things like Xanax, Klonopin, Ativan, those kind of things. Opiates or pain pills, amphetamines or methamphetamines can be ADHD medicine or meth. COC is obviously cocaine. Now, a lot of people ask me what the bar is. That's barbiturates, which is like those old school sleeping pills. I don't usually see that pop up much anymore, but it could happen. And this one actually tests for MDMA as well. So if you know you're looking for a specific drug, then make sure you get a test that at least includes that one. Keep watching because I'm about to tell you some really important things. This is where you're going to learn these secret ninja tips and tricks. So let's talk about some different scenarios that could happen. Let's say your kid refuses to take the drug screen. Well, in my mind, there's only one reason to refuse to take a drug screen. It's like refusing a breathalyzer. It means something is sketchy. So a refusal is an immediate positive. You don't have to argue about it. You obviously can't physically force someone to pee in the cup. So a refusal is a positive. Here's another situation that could happen. So you say, okay, it's time to take our screen. And then the kid says to you something like, okay, mom, like, let me just admit it. I was in the car the other day and they were all smoking. And so I'm probably going to show positive for marijuana. But I didn't even use, I was just in the car. Don't even fall for that. You are not gonna get enough secondhand smoke in you to show positive on a drug screen. And if you do, then that means you got enough secondhand smoke in you that you got high from it. And so you deserve failed drug screen. So don't even fall for that. Another version of that same thing is when the kid says, okay, I did. I screwed up the other day, I smoked some weed. But it was only the one time and it was Just a little bit. Now, a lot of parents fall for this one because they're like, okay, thank you for telling me. I appreciate you being honest. And I don't know, there may be a consequence or whatever, but I want you to go ahead and do that drug screen, because a lot of times they'll tell you, okay, I did this one thing when actually, if you go ahead and do that drug screen, it might light up all over that drug screen for a lot of things. So don't fall for that. So we're taking a drug screen because not taking it is a positive. We're not falling for the I don't have to pee. And even if they admit to doing one drug, you're going to go ahead and test anyone say, thank you for being honest. I appreciate that. Let's do the test. All right, now to the nitty gritty. You have the test. You put it in the urine down like this. And what you're going to see is liquid creep up into the little windows. It kind of looks pinkish as it's climbing up in there. It takes probably 20 or 30 seconds, something like that. Now, once it's sort of creeped up in there, you can put the lid on so pee's not falling everywhere and let it sit down for a minute or two, because it takes just a little bit to read. Now, key piece of information here, do not throw away the urine yet. Because if there is a question about what this drug screen result says, then you want to still have that urine. Sometimes you can. Actually depends on where you buy the drug screens. You can send them into the lab to get a confirmation, so you could take that very same urine and send it in. But what I usually tell people to do, because I know you've already ordered a box of these, right? Because you're listening and you're smart and you're five steps ahead. You got a whole box of them. You got some more in the closet. So if you give the kid the test and they're like, that's crazy. I didn't do that. That's some bull. Like, that test is lying. Here's what I want you to do, because remember, this is how to do it with not arguing. I don't know. You say, dang, man, you might be right. These tests are kind of cheap. You're right. Hold on one second. Let me go get another one. Out the closet or drawer or wherever you keep them, you go get another one, you bring it in, you do another test. Now, if you've had two back to back tests and they give you the exact same result, the chances that that's accurate are pretty good. But even if there's some question after that, you can say, well, gosh, I don't know, I guess these tests could be wrong. You're not gonna argue and you can say, let's just go to the lab, let's get a real deal test so we can be sure. Now, a lot of times they'll start backing down when you say that, and that's a pretty good sign that they were bluffing. But if there's question an ongoing conversation about it, then take them to the lab. There will be labs in your town or near you that you can actually walk into. Kind of like if you were taking like a pre employment drug screen or something like that. So you can take them in and you can ask for like a 10 panel drug screen. Now if marijuana is the concern, then what I advise you to do is to also ask for something called a marijuana level. That doesn't usually come on just the regular drug test, because that one usually just says like negative or positive. But if you're concerned about marijuana, you may want to go ahead and ask for the marijuana level because that's going to give you a number. On most drug screens, a marijuana cutoff level is about 50. So once you see that number, you can see is it close to the bottom range or is it like 4,000? So at least you can see how much marijuana that they're using. Now if marijuana is the main drug that you're concerned about when you start the drug screening process, you may want to use a lab test to start with just to find out what your starting point is. Okay, so let's look at the results of the test together so you can see what you should be looking for. Okay, so what you're actually looking for is you want to see two lines all the way across that top line there. It's got a C beside it that stands for control. If you're missing a top line, it means the test is invalid. I've only ever seen that maybe once or twice. If that's the case, you're just gonna go in there because you got a whole box and you're gonna get another one out. But like I said, that hardly ever happens. The bottom line is actually the test line. And you can remember because there's a little T beside it, you want the line to be there. So just remember you want to see two lines all the way across every one of these windows. And if they're Missing a line, it means they're positive for that drug. So I purposefully have got a positive drug test for you here, so you can see what I'm. Okay, so let's take a look at this one. It's got two lines all the way across, except for the amphetamines. And because this is a person that's on ADHD medicine, they're on stimulants. So as you can see, there is no line whatsoever there. Okay, so here's one more thing that is really important. Some of the lines are going to be darker than others, and that is normal. Dark lines don't mean really clean, and light lines don't mean a little clean. The line is either there or it's not there. It's like a pregnancy test. It's not telling you how much. So if it's there and it's faint, then it's clean. They pass the test. If it is not there at all, then you got a positive for that drug. So I don't want you to freak out if some of the lines are fainter than others. If they're there, they're there. But hopefully all the drug screens you do are going to be negative, meaning no drugs in the system. Or if you get a positive drug test or, you know, you're dealing with a kid that's using drugs. I want you to watch these videos next. It's about how to get on the same parenting page. And even if you're a single parent, if there's a grandparent or a step parent or somebody else involved, it's super important to be lined up about how you want to deal with situations like this. This. So I actually have two videos for you. One is specifically for moms and one is specifically for dads. I'm putting them right up here and all you have to do is click on them. Oh, yeah, and also, don't forget, go to the description below and you can download your free home drug screening guide for parents. It's got everything I just told you, plus a lot more.