By far, the number one concern people have about taking CBD is testing positive for marijuana at work.  It’s a valid concern because one failed drug test may cause you to lose your job.

Is taking an at home drug test a good way to know if your CBD product contains enough THC to make you fail a drug test your employer might give you?  Yes.  The urine-based drug tests you can buy at your local pharmacy use the same method and technology as the tests that over 90% of employers give to their employers.  If you pass an at-home test, you are extremely likely to pass an at-work test as well.

These test kits are simple to obtain, only cost between $12 – $20, and they are easy to perform.  There are some things you can do to protect yourself while you’re trying out your new CBD product so you don’t lose your job.  Here is what I have done and it’s worked well.

Purchase from a reputable source

First and foremost, purchase your CBD from a reputable supplier.  There are several good suppliers online who take their business and their products very seriously.  I’ve recommended several of these suppliers on my Recommended Products page.  I’ve also written a blog post about how to avoid buying the wrong product and wasting your money.  Not all CBD products are the same and neither are all suppliers.  So once you find a product and vendor that works best for you and doesn’t cause you to fail a drug test (and most of them won’t cause this) stick with it.

Only purchase HEMP-DERIVED CBD

Remember there is a difference between hemp-derived CBD and marijuana-derived CBD.  I’ve talked about this in several blog posts on this website.  If you’re reading this post, I’m assuming you don’t want THC in your system.  This means you should only be buying and consuming hemp-derived CBD.

By definition, hemp-derived CBD must contain less than 0.3% THC.  This level is way below the level needed to get you high and should not show up on a drug test.  If you’re going to use marijuana-derived CBD products, then save yourself the trouble of doing this drug test, and just assume you’ll fail if you have to take one… because you most likely will.

Talk to your HR person at work

This may sound like a crazy idea, and depending on where you work, it may be a bad idea.  But for me it worked really well.  I have a good relationship with the human resources lady over the department I work in.  One day I asked her if I could talk to her about something that was important to me.  She obviously said yes.  I explained that I had been studying a lot about hemp-derived CBD and I was interested in trying some.

She wasn’t really sure what CBD was.  I explained some of the information I had learned and why I was interested in trying it.  The reason I was bringing it up to her was that there was a very small chance that I could test positive for THC and I didn’t want to risk losing my job.  I showed her where I was buying the product from and showed her the claims on the website where I was buying it.

After showing her this, I asked her if we could come to an agreement that I could try this new product out for a week without risk of being fired, as long as my behavior didn’t change in a negative way.  I explained that at the end of the week I was going to buy an at-home drug test and see if I was “clean”.  She had no problem with this.  She was interested in hearing the results of the test but said that even if it was positive it wasn’t going to affect my standing with the company.  She even thanked me for being up front and honest with her.

If you think you have an HR contact at your company who you could have this conversation with, it wouldn’t hurt to start the conversation with them before you start taking CBD.  If you try to hide it and then happen to fail a drug test, it’s likely going to be a much harder conversation.

Take a vacation if you can

Even though I had talked with my HR contact and gotten her buy-in on my little experiment, I had a week worth of vacation coming up for Thanksgiving so I decided to do the test during that time.  It probably wasn’t necessary to do it during vacation, but the timing worked out really well and it basically took the risk down to zero.

If you have a fairly long vacation coming up, you might consider doing your experiment during vacation as well.  Especially if you aren’t going to talk with your HR department first.

In the rare event that you do test positive and you have no agreement in place with your HR team, you should probably wait to go back to work for 2 – 3 days.  This time should allow your body to get rid of any THC in your system.  Everyone’s body gets rid of THC a little differently though so it would probably be a good idea to buy another drug test and make sure you test negative again before returning to work.

Start taking the product

Now that we’ve covered some preliminary details, it’s time to start taking your hemp-derived CBD product and start your little experiment.  You’ll want to take the product the way you intend to for the long-term.  If you’re going to take it twice a day, then do that for this test as well.  You want everything about this test to match the way you’re going to use the product after the test is over.

Because THC is fat soluble, it will tend to build up in your system for a few days.  So take your new product for several days before taking the drug test.  I took mine for seven days before taking my drug test.  It’s hard to say exactly how many days you should take it for in order to reach a steady state of THC in your system (if there is even any THC in your CBD product of course.)

I would recommend taking your product for at least 3 days in a row before taking the drug test.  If you’re going to do this test while you’re on vacation, remember in the rare event that you test positive you’ll want to avoid going back to work until you’ve stopped taking the product for 2 – 3 days.  This should give enough time for the THC in your system to be eliminated.  So take the product as long as you can while still allowing for a few days after the drug test to allow for any THC to get out of your system.

Now it’s time to take the test

This is really very simple.  Read all the instructions carefully before doing the test.  You don’t want to waste any money by screwing this up.  But it’s pretty simple.  For mine, all I had to do was pee in a cup, put a lid on it, tip it on its side (make sure the lid is on tight!) and wait 5 minutes before reading the results.

A couple of minor details to consider… if you take the test right when you wake up, this is when you’ll have the most concentrated urine.  So morning is when you’re most likely to test positive.  If you can pass a drug test first thing in the morning, then you’re definitely good.

Also, if you wait to start catching your urine until you’ve been peeing for a second or two and stop collecting your pee before you are done peeing.  THC levels tend to be higher at the beginning and end of a urine stream.

If you really want to try and test positive, then take the test first thing in the morning and collect the first bit of urine along with the end of your urine.  If you still test negative then you’ve found a CBD product that should be safe for you to consume without fear of failing a drug test at work.

What if my test is positive

Ultimately if your CBD product caused you to fail this test, my advice is to shop around for a different CBD product.  However, technically the next step is to send the urine sample off for a confirmatory test.  Most test kits you buy also include a free confirmatory test.  You’ll probably have to pay for the shipping.  But once your urine is received, they will run it through a more discriminating analysis and provide you with a concrete answer.

This is exactly how your employer likely does it as well.  It’s not uncommon for the 5 minute part of these tests to come back positive and then the confirmatory test comes back clean.

But… if the product your taking caused you to fail the first part of this test, you should try a different product from a different supplier.  There are plenty of products out there that will not produce a positive drug test.  So why risk it?

How did my test turn out?

The seven-day test I did came back clean.  No issues!  And I was happy about that.  Several people have asked me what product I used so I’ll share it here.  I used a CBD tincture from CBD Essence.  You can visit their product page HERE.  I have no reservations in recommending this product as one that won’t cause you to fail a drug test.

Final comments

There are lots of hemp-derived CBD products on the market that will not cause you to fail a drug test.  Make sure you’re buying from a reputable supplier who does 3rd party testing for THC.  Giving yourself an at-home drug test is a good way to test a new product you’ve purchased.  You don’t want to risk dealing with a failed test at work.

Don’t try and find ways of beating these drug tests.  There’s no reason to.  It’s so easy to find products that won’t cause you to fail a drug test.  Just shop around until you find one.

Several people have asked me what product I used for my test.  It came back negative

Related Questions

Couldn’t I just send a sample of my CBD product to get it tested by a 3rd party lab?  Yes, you can send a CBD product to a third party lab for independent THC analysis.  But the cost is significant and will likely be between $100 – $250. 

Will the law ever change to allow some THC to be in your system without fear of losing your job?  Laws, in general, are becoming more relaxed regarding Cannabis.  It seems likely that in time there may be an allowable limit of THC in your system at work without fear of punishment.  This would make consumption of hemp-derived CBD more likely for many individuals who work for drug-free employers.