Their bodies feel like they're on fire. Every time they touch their own skin, it burns. They take cold shower after cold shower to cool down the intense heat of their own bodies.
They don't have fevers. They're not sick. They have to take a drug test, and there are enough illegal toxins in their systems to keep them jobless for a long time. They need to pass the test.
They swallow large quantities of Niacin, or Vitamin B3, and wash it down with gallons of water.
The next day they pee in a cup and the results came back: some pass and some don't.
People who have taken Niacin in an effort to pass drug tests have reported these feelings and symptoms. Doctors have confirmed that this vitamin, normally used to reduce cholesterol, can be harmful, even fatal, if taken in too large a quantity.
Whether the vitamin works in passing drug tests depends on whom you talk to and how the urine has been tested.
"Niacin tends to turn the color of the urine," said Doug Drevo, a lab technician at Physicians Lab. "(People) attempt to disguise the color of the urine so it looks normal. The problem is that the urine tends to have an unnatural color from the Niacin, which is a dead giveaway."
However, for employers or other testers who are not aware of what they're looking for, Drevo said the vitamin can prove effective. Simple urine tests, which generally look simply at the color of the urine, often mistake the effects of Niacin for healthy, drug-free urine.
If the urine is tested through machines and in-depth processes, drug toxins will be found.
"(Niacin) doesn't affect the result at all," Drevo commented. "All it does is work as camouflage."
Using Niacin to attempt to pass drug tests used to be very popular, but Drevo said fewer people are using it today, especially since Niacin fails to eliminate the drug toxins.
The harmfulness of the vitamin has been heavily debated, but most doctors say that the vitamin does have negative side effects, especially when taken at the dose necessary to camouflage urine samples.
"Taking the amount of Niacin that would change the color of your urine is probably not that harmful," he said. But "it shouldn't be used."
Drevo also warns against using Internet information about drug testing to make decisions about how to mask toxins in urine samples.
He has perused much of the information available and has found that around 95 percent of what he has read has been false and misleading.
"Most of it are urban myths and wives' tales," he said. "They don't work."
Dr. John Vasiliades, a forensic toxicologist and laboratory director for Toxicology Labs Inc. in Omaha, points out that anything taken in excess will probably lead to negative side effects.
"You can take aspirin, which is useful," Vasiliades said. "But if you take too much of it, it will kill you. Most things you take in excess will kill you. With Niacin you run the risk of averse effects, like anything else."
Vasiliades also said whether the urine testing is done through simply analyzing the color of the urine or going through extensive tests, "nothing will work" in masking the drugs.
"If someone dumps it in the urine after they give the urine sample," he said, "that's a different story.
"By putting it in (the urine), that's a different ball game. It will essentially destroy the sample, and the test may be affected by those chemicals."
The effects of Niacin are still being debated among doctors, but the stories from those who have taken it, detailing excessive sweating and burning sensations across their skin, make for a strong argument against the vitamin.
Drevo gives this advice to anyone trying to pass a drug test.
"Don't do the drugs, and you won't have to worry about the test." |
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