What is Adulteration/ Masking?
"Adulteration" is the ingestion of or the addition of a substance directly to a sample with the express purpose of defeating a drug test.
What is Water Loading?
The most commonly ingested substance is a large volume of water (called water loading) in order to drive the concentration of the drug/metabolite in the urine below the cut-off level. Can this technique be detected? The simple answer is that water loading can be easily detected by properly trained testing staff.
Household & Commercial Masking Agents?
Both household and commercially available products can also be added to the urine sample with varying success. Some will defeat the on-site drug test while some will only defeat the laboratory test.
However, all these products will be detected using an on-site adulteration test carried out in conjunction with the on-site drug test.
Guaranteed Success?
There is currently no adulterant which can be added to urine which can guarantee success in defeating a drug test, provided an on-site adulteration test is carried out. Some of the commercially available adulterants also contain chemicals which are acidic or poisonous in nature while others contain known carcinogens (chemicals that cause cancer) and hence care needs to be exercised by people who chose to use such products.
Getting Caught?
It should also be pointed out that drug testing policies generally treat proven adulteration with a greater penalty than a confirmed positive drug test, so any attempt to use a product of this type is likely to have drastic consequences for the individual if caught!