Whether or not you pass a drug test depends on what drugs you’ve been taking. If you’ve been using synthetic cannabinoids, which are slightly altered versions of the chemicals/drugs found in the cannabis plant, odds are that you will pass most drug tests just fine. This is not true if the tests are specifically designed to detect the synthetic cannabinoids you used, but this is uncommon unless they have a specific reason to use this test. However, if you’ve smoked or taken edibles of conventional cannabis, they can be detected on both the 5 panel and 10 panel drug tests.
A 5 panel drug test is the simpler/cheaper of the two and often used. The most common version is a quick, inexpensive urine test that is used by a lot of companies to ensure a ‘drug free’ workplace (as well as your drug free weekend/personal life). The 5 panel drug test covers marijuana/cannabis (including CBD, THC and CBC), amphetamines (like methamphetamine, Adderall, MDMA/Ecstasy), PCP, opiates and cocaine.*[1] A 10 panel one tests for those drugs, as well as barbiturates (old-school sedatives famous for killing a few Hollywood actresses), methaqualone, benzodiazepines (like Xanax), methadone and propoxyphene (a rarer opioid that doesn’t show up on the 5 panel).*[2] They can use your urine, blood or hair with both the 5 and 10 panel tests. Urine tests will show a positive for the shortest period after using the drug and hair follicle tests for the longest period after your last use of the drug. Blood tests land somewhere in the middle of these.
With a urine test, the drug will show up in your urine for up to 30 days beginning from a day or two after you last took the drug. Trying to cheat a urine test by adding fluids such as vinegar, bleach, or other chemicals from a kit or elsewhere to disrupt the test will usually lead to you getting caught by the testing agency, as they test for many of these additives. *[3] With a hair follicle test, drugs normally will show up 5-7 days after you used the drug and can last for over 90 days. These tests are considered even more difficult to cheat than a urine test, although trying to cheat either one generally fails.
If the specific synthetic cannabinoid you’ve been enjoying has been scheduled (meaning it’s on the list of banned drugs) in your area, they may have additional tests for it. There are a few tests that have been developed that pick up a few of the synthetic cannabinoids, so having them detected is still a remote possibility. Some synthetic cannabinoids remain legal in Canada, others have been scheduled, some US states have banned them, and some have yet to act so availability and legality may vary by region. The Federal Analog Act may cover some of these chemicals, so their legal status remains ambiguous in the USA. In the UK, cannabis and CBD are both class B drugs* [4](in the middle range of penalties), synthetic cannabinoids remain unscheduled, although some could potentially be considered derivatives of CBD.
As for general bans, on 11 May 2021 China announced a blanket synthetic cannabinoid ban to go into effect 1 July 2021. *[5] These bans are, on a surface level at least, done to try to save lives and cut down on harm but end up causing more harm than they prevent.
The harm caused is because those who regularly use these drugs must resort to the black market or search for potentially more harmful alternatives. They also make it harder for suppliers to source their drugs, which makes mixing in fillers or mislabelling drugs to make them more appealing for an unethical distributor. China announced a previous ban for fentanyl related drugs in 2019*[6] and 2020 had the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded by the American Centre for Disease Control. *[7]
This type of prohibition just muddies up the drug supply and shifts users from one class of drugs to another. It doesn’t address the underlying societal and personal problems that lead to addiction; it just punishes those unable to adapt. Generally, the groups targeted for enforcement of these laws are minorities. For example, African Americans use and sell slightly less drugs in the USA than Caucasian Americans but are charged and imprisoned at a rate 6.5x higher than Caucasian Americans.*[8] This discrepancy in enforcement has resulted in ⅓ of African American men having a criminal record, which is further exacerbated with loss of job prospects that that entails.*[9] For similar policy reasons, First Nations (Indigenous Canadians) make up about 30% of the inmate population in Canada despite being only 5% of the total population of Canada.*[10]
One reason to use a trusted supplier like flightams.com is that many reports from less reputable suppliers have surfaced of cannabinoids being mislabelled as noids of much more or less potency than the ones they were sold as being. This creates a potentially deadly overdose situation. *[11] Always make sure you can trust your source to avoid this problem. Testing substances with reagent kits (when available for that substance) is another way to reduce this risk.
Now let’s look at the most common synthetic cannabinoid/noid*[12] being smoked in pipes across the world today.
MDMB-4en-PINACA
MDMB-4en-PINACA, also commonly misnamed 5CL-ADB-A (though it doesn’t possess a chlorine group, so this name is inaccurate) first showed up in markets around 2017*[13] and was first reported by US law enforcement in January 2019*[14]. Now it has become the most commonly used synthetic cannabinoid. MDMB-4en-PINACA is a synthetic cannabinoid of the Indazole class and acts on the CB1 cannabinoid receptor.
The CB1 receptors are all over your body and usually are triggered by endogenous cannabinoids released by your muscles during exercise, especially exercises with repetitive rhythms like running. It is responsible for the giddy feeling to facilitate sharing and playful interactions after a challenging task is completed. Cannabinoids have a large impact across the body and brain. These cannabinoids regulate everything from our body temperature, appetite, and mood. They seemingly evolved to help mammals relax enough to share food and act socially after a difficult hunt or escape from a predator.
Cannabis and synthetic cannabinoids mimic the molecules your body naturally releases that bind to the receptors. Combined with the THC in cannabis, they act as a partial agonist, meaning they only partly block the receptor and can be displaced. With synthetic cannabinoids, the vast majority are full agonists, meaning they fully block the receptor and are much harder to displace/last longer and can have more intense and less reversible physical effects than THC commonly does. *[15]
This means that synthetic cannabinoids require more careful dosing and are less forgiving of frequent use than conventional cannabinoids like THC, CBD, and CBN and thus have earned a bit of an undeserved reputation as being unusually dangerous.
This reputation is largely due to packs of unknown synthetic cannabinoids being sold to teenagers in smoke shops as herbal smoke blends with mislabelled cannabinoids and unknown dosages leading to overdose and death. It is a similar problem to fentanyl, where a known amount of fentanyl in a reasonable dose is equally safe as oxycodone or one of the other opioids considered safer. It’s the unknown dose that makes the potency of the drug dangerous. The addictive properties are present in most stimulants and can be mitigated with proper harm reduction techniques.
As far as testing goes, there have recently been some tests developed for them through its metabolites M30, M8, M3, M12, M14*[16] *[17] that are all detectable. As of June 2021, these were not screened for in most 5 and 10 panel drug tests. *[18]
Be careful with how much and how often you use this substance. High to extreme doses have resulted in seizures and over 25 fatalities to date. *[19] While it will allow you to get around some drug tests, it is also considered very addictive and has very heavy withdrawals, even compared to drugs such as opiates and benzos.
Developing a habit is not something you want for yourself or a loved one. One strategy to avoid turning a single smoke session into a weekend long binge is to weigh out the amount you intend to use for the day, then put the rest in a time delay safe or have a friend hide it away for you to be returned another day. Another trick is to only purchase the amount you’re comfortable consuming in a single sitting, although this can be expensive. Never dosing more than once every week or other similar personal rules may make developing a habit less likely, with the risk being reduced by using the drug less often. This also avoids building tolerance, so makes each session more intense and avoids spending unnecessary money on more drugs just to combat tolerance and create a worse withdrawal for yourself.
Compared to other Cannabinoids MDMB-4en-PINACA can be very dissociative at higher doses.*[20] Compared to other common dissociatives, like ketamine or PCP, it tends to cause more panic and less visuals. Because of this, chasing higher doses to try to achieve this effect is almost certainly a terrible idea.
References:
[1] https://usamdt.com/drug-testing/5-panel-drug-test-cover/[2] https://www.usdrugtestcenters.com/probation-drug-testing.html[3] https://www.usdrugtestcenters.com/probation-drug-testing.html[4] http://www.drugsdefencesolicitors.co.uk/class-b-drugs.html[5] https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/china-issues-total-ban-synthetic-cannabinoids-77617434[6] https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/china-issues-total-ban-synthetic-cannabinoids-77617434[7] https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p1218-overdose-deaths-covid-19.html[8]https://www.hamiltonproject.org/charts/rates_of_drug_use_and_sales_by_race_rates_of_drug_related_criminal_justice[9] https://www.sentencingproject.org/news/5593/[10] https://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/comm/press/press20200121-eng.aspx[11]https://www.reddit.com/r/noids/comments/943r1c/be_careful_with_some_of_the_latest_noids_try/u/Finntuitive 2019
[12] https://www.reddit.com/r/noids/comments/lvd248/question_about_what_noids_are_popular/[13] https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/33565/1/EMCDDA_TR-MDMB-4en-PINACA.pdf[14] https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/08/04/2020-16905/international-drug-scheduling-convention-on-psychotropic-substances-single-convention-on-narcotic[15] https://analyticalsciencejournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/dta.2935https://doi.org/10.1002/dta.2935
[16] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31848852/[17] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32091101/DOI: 10.1093/jat/bkaa017
[18]https://www.reddit.com/r/noids/comments/mvrfje/does_anyone_know_of_a_synthetic_cannabinoid_that/u/jaymoneyhunny May 2021
[19] https://ndews.org/?wysija-page=1&controller=email&action=view&email_id=40&wysijap=subscriptions[20]https://www.reddit.com/r/noids/comments/nepx1o/some_newbie_questions_about_mdmb_4en_pinaca/u/SmergolGandalf May 2021
Disclaimer:
The articles here are not written by Flight AMS and do not necessarily hold the same views and opinions.
