The title says it all. Almost.
For years now the best detox drinks were used to pass a urine drug test. In some cases they even worked; people smoked weed last week and passed a drug test with flying colors.
Nonetheless, there are many more cases where the use of detox drinks was detrimental to the whole lets-pass-a-drug-test thing. In short, people drank a detox drink and failed a drug test about an hour later. Still pissing hot.
So which is: Do detox drinks help you pass a drug test or not?
Now this is the answer you’re going to hate: It depends.
The one thing to remember is that the best detox drinks for drug tests do work; but only in special circumstances (for light and moderate smokers, mostly).
Everybody knows there are only 2 sure ways of how to pass a drug test for any kind of user (with the peer-reviewed scientific literature to back it up). There are:
- Synthetic urine (to pass a drug test on short notice).1,2 The laboratory-made artificial urine beats a urine drug test with much more certainty than detox drinks. That’s why most people who need to pass a drug test use it regularly. You can read more about which synthetic urine brands are the best to use here.
- Complete THC detox (to pass a drug test in 5 to 10 days).3 If you have a bit more time, you can pass a marijuana drug test naturally by going through a detox program (includes detox pills, cardio, dieting, and even a detox liquid). You can read more about the best THC detox kit and program here.
We will look at the specific cases where detox drinks make sense for passing a drug test. We’ll even point out the 3 best detox drinks that can help you beat the drug test. On the other hand, however, we’ll also indicate situations in which drinking a detox drink for weed is a sure way of you failing a drug test.
For everybody really needs help to pass a drug test, the synthetic urine or a complete THC detox are much better choices. In the end you also find some detox drink FAQ because a number of people have asked about cranberry juice, lemon juice, coffee, and so on.
Who Can Pass A Drug Test With Detox Drinks?
If you’re looking to pass a drug test with a detox drink, you really need to be honest with yourself about what kind of smoker you are.
For example, if you’re a chronic smoker puffing away several joints per week and want to pass a drug test within next 5 days, even the best detox drink for weed is useless.
However, if you smoke marijuana just on the weekends and have a drug test on Friday, drinking a 32oz detox drink can be a difference between passing a drug test and losing your job.
Detox drinks for marijuana are appropriate for 3 types of cannabis users:
- Light users.
- Moderate users (about 1 joint per week).
- Everybody else who is extremely close to the cut off level of a drug test.
Basically, if you’re really close to passing a drug test, the best detox drink can push you in the ‘Tested Negative’ zone.
The cut-off rates of most THC drug panels are 50 ng/ml or, if you have a strick of bad luck, they might use the more specific 20 ng/ml drug test.
In essence, it’s important to understand that even the best detox drinks for marijuana are not ‘miracle cleansers’. Properly getting rid of all the THC in your system is a lengthy process. You can’t just drink a single hyper powered detox drink and think for the best.
However, if you are a light or moderate smoker, or even a chronic smoker that is seeing a faint line on at home THC drug test, a detox drink might be a reasonable choice.
How Do Detox Drinks For Marijuana Work?
For a successful drug test, the THC-COOH (THC metabolite that drug test measure) has to be below 50 ng/ml. If they use the more accurate 20 ng/ml test, the concentration of THC-COOH has to be under 20 ng/ml.
Obviously, if your current levels are 500 ng/ml, even the best detox drink for THC won’t help you enough. However, if you’re at about 100 ng/ml, a detox drink might drop the THC-COOH concentration below 50 ng/ml.
Detox drinks for weed work in 3 distinct ways:
- As diluting agents. Detox drink would drop the concentration of THC-COOH by increasing urine production.
- As ‘masking agents’. Some detox drinks claim to ‘mask drugs’ in your urine. We don’t have a scientific understanding on how all that works. So, it’s a bit of an exaggeration.
- As cleansing agents. They make you pee really hard and that should eliminate more of THC before a drug test. This is also scientifically questionally: increased urination before a drug test doesn’t seem to increase THC elimination significantly enough.
Of all the 3 ways, only the 1st one has some scientific merit. That’s why the best detox drinks for marijuana work as diluting agents.
They dilute your urine. For example, if your currently have a 80 ng/ml THC-COOH concentration in your urine, the 50 ng/ml drug test will be ‘positive’.
However, if a detox drink can dilute your urine to 40 ng/ml THC-COOH concentration, the same test will be ‘negative’.
Let’s look at which detox drinks can significantly dilute your urine and cleanse your THC-full system:
3 Best Detox Drinks To Pass A Drug Test With
Some detox drinks can help you pass a drug test. We made sure to distill all the detox drinks down to 3 that:
- Work as diluting agents. Actually useful to pass a drug test with.
- Have a good reputation (been on the market for decade or so).
- People used to actually pass a drug test quite consistenly.
If the detox drinks come with detox pills, that’s quite a bonus as well. Here are the 3 best detox drinks for weed:
#1 Mega Clean 32oz Cleansing Drink By Detoxify (+6 Pre-Cleanse Pills)
Mega Clean enjoys the status of being the best detox drinks for marijuana drug test for years.
All the marijuana-related forums are full of people who passed a urine drug test by drinking it. It’s made by Detoxify, the go-to company when it comes to these kinds of detox drinks.
Mega Clean 32oz bottle contains the most optimized balance of herbal extracts like Uva Ursi and creatine as well as mineral and vitamins. In combination, these ingredients will make you urinate like there is no tomorrow.
The effect here is double:
- Flush as much of THC out of your system.
- Dilute the urine to lower the THC-COOH levels as much as possible.
To increase your chances of passing a drug test even further, you even get 6 pre-cleanse detox pills for free in the package.
To have the best chances of passing, it is important to follow the instructions correctly. Here’s how to use it:
- Avoid using drugs 48h or more before the drug test.
That’s pretty obvious start.
- 24h before a drug test start with the pre-cleanse detox pills. This is the cleansing part.
Take one pill every 2 hours and drink plenty of water (6 big glasses of water or more). The pills will make you pee out the THC-COOH metabolite.
- Drink the entire 32oz Mega Clean 2-3 hours before the drug test. This is the dilution part.
Made sure you’re near the toilet. You will start urinating heavily. This is the result of increased urine production which will dilute your urine substantially.
- Extra Step: Drink as much water as you can.
Mega Clean helps you create more urine. For more urine, you need more water. That’s why the consumption of water should be increased during this whole ordeal.
If you follow the instructions properly, using the Mega Clean with pre-cleanse pills is the most useful detox for a drug test.
#2 Rescue Cleanse 32oz by ClearChoice (+ Pre-Cleanse Pills)
Rescue Cleanse is another diluting agent that comes with pre-rid cleansing drinks to flush the drugs out of your system as quickly as possible.
The 32oz cranapple flavored drink gives a 5-hour window in which you have to take a drug test. Basically, you can use the pre-cleanse pills before to quicken the THC elimination out of your system.
About 5 hours (3 hours is the optimal timing, actually) you drink the whole 32oz Rescue Cleanse detox drink. You will feel an immediate urge to urinate. In fact, you will probably have to go to the toilet several times before you take the drug test.
By then, the concentration of THC-COOH in your urine should be decreased substantially as a result of diluted urine.
#3 XXtra Clean Detox Drink By Detoxify
XXtra Clean is another detox drink by Detoxify. It’s very similar to the Mega Clean; even the instructions of how to use to are pretty much the same.
However, XXtra Clean doesn’t seem to be as effective as the Mega Clean judging what people on the marijuana-related forum are saying.
It seems that XXtra Clean is very vitamin and mineral heavy as opposed to being herbal extract and creatine heavy. That’s not to say that vitamins and mineral don’t make you pee more; they do.
However, the creatine and herbal extracts are what really boosts the urine production and, as a consequences, reduced the concentration of the drug in your urine.
It is also advisable to drink the whole bottle about 3 hours before you take the test.
Detox Drink For Drug Test FAQ
There several different urban legends about what drinks help you pass a drug test. In order to make the detox drinks justice, it’s only appropriate to answer some of them.
Here we go:
No. Detox drinks usually contain a mixture of herbal extract, creatine, vitamins and mineral. None of these specimen are tested while conducting a drug test.
There is no way to detect the use of a detox drink. However, if your urine will be too diluted, you might have to give another urine sample.
Lemon juice does make you pee more. That can help you when trying to pass a drug test. However, the more important question if drinking gallons of lemon juice will be enough to pass a drug test. Sadly, no. It’s difficult to pass a drug test even with the best detox drinks, lemon juice is just not as potent as those.
Cranberry juice and increased urination do go hand-in-hand. However, drinking cranberry juice will not drastically affect the outcome of a drug test. If you’re really really close to the cut-off level of the drug test, drinking cranberry juice might help you bit in more than 90% of cases that’s just not the case.
Caffeine in coffee does increase urination as well as increases metabolism levels. Those two effects are great when you want to flush drugs out of your system as a way to prepare for a drug test. However, drinking coffee is still insignificant to the effect the detox drinks for drug test have. You can, however, drink coffee along with the detox drink.
Well, detox drinks for drug test are the best natural drinks to pass a drug test. That’s because they contain a mixture of ingredients (such as caffeine, creatine, vitamins, minerals) that all other natural detox drinks contain. Obviously, trying to pass a drug test with chia seed smoothies is a long shot.
Scientific Sources:
(1) Goggin MM, Tann CM, Miller A, Nguyen A, Janis GC. Catching Fakes: New Markers of Urine Sample Validity and Invalidity. MedTox Laboratories, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, St. Paul, MN 55114, USA. Journal of Analytical Toxicology. 2017 Mar 1;41(2):121-126.
(2) Kim VJ, Okano CK, Osborne CR, Frank DM, Meana CT, Castaneto MS. Can synthetic urine replace authentic urine to “beat” workplace drug testing? Drug Testing Analysis. 2019 Feb;11(2):331-335.
(3) Klein AV1, Kiat H. Detox diets for toxin elimination and weight management: a critical review of the evidence. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia. J Hum Nutr Diet. 2015 Dec;28(6):675-86.