The sad truth about life is that it rarely works with your schedule and will always find a way to interfere with your plans. So when you learn that your drug test is going to be the day after a massive outing with friends or a large social gathering, it can feel like the world is working against you.
Unfortunately, the best policy for avoiding a negative drug test result is to abstain from any substance that can affect the test. That being said, canceling important social commitments is not always possible.
While it is never a great idea to tie one on the day before any important test, will it result in you losing the job? To learn if you can drink the night before a pre-employment drug test, we will be going into detail about the different tests you may receive and how alcohol can affect them.
Can You Drink The Night Before A Drug Test?
There is no definitive yes or no answer to whether or not alcohol will show up on a drug test because it is impossible to measure two different people accurately. For instance, say Jackie, a 125-pound woman, had four drinks the night before with John, a 210-pound male. Now, both of them have drug tests, and while Jackie pops for alcohol, John does not.
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While we can assume that the added density of John made the alcohol not appear, it is not the only factor. We do not know if they took the same type of drug test, how quickly the two of them drank, how old they were, and whether or not they ate before their liquid dinner. If you are drinking the night before a drug test, on some level, it is a gamble whether you will pass.
No one can ever be definitively sure if alcohol will show up on a drug screening. Even if you have one beer with dinner the night before, a hair test (which is rare) can pull alcohol from as far back as six months. The chances of an employer firing you for having a drink the night before are improbable, though it still could send a bad message.
What Affects A Drug Test?
A drug test can be affected by several different individual characteristics a person may have. If you are a man, you will typically be able to drink more than a woman of similar height and weight due to higher numbers of liver enzymes. Similarly, the amount of water weight in the average woman is higher than that of the average man.
The amount of alcohol and how quickly you drink it can affect a test, as well as the type of alcohol you are ingesting. Time is undefeated, and younger folks will be able to break down the alcohol far quicker than their wiser counterparts. How much food you have consumed in the last twenty-four hours will also play a role.
If you do plan to drink the night before a drug test, ensure that you know which type of drug test it will be. A saliva test may not detect alcohol, but a blood or hair follicle test certainly will. Most jobs will not reject an employee they plan to hire for having alcohol in their system on a thorough test, but it could hurt your chances if you pop for alcohol on a saliva swab.
Quick Summary on Drinking Before A Drug Test
It is not a good rule of thumb to drink the night before a drug test. Even the most surface-level drug tests can find alcohol that has been consumed in the last twenty-four hours, and you don't want to be the guy who comes to drug screening hungover.
Because of the different factors that go into breaking down alcohol, it is impossible to know whether or not you will pass a drug test if you drink the night before. The best way to avoid having to explain alcohol in your system is to avoid putting alcohol in your system.
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