Home Tests- Faintness of "The Lines"

Ok, I addressed this on another less pertinent thread. I have tested myself after heavy thc usage and heavy detox before and have gotten my time of detox down to less than a week. (5'7" 135lbs, and at the time active.) However there has always been a question looming over my head when I use these home strips with those Incredibly annoying lines of faintness. The tests always say that no matter how faint the lines, if they show your golden. Ive never had mine be Completely of a solid color however, always faint, like there was just enough not to show. Anyone happen to be experienced enough in this field to tell me if the faintness truly represents the amount of thc metabolites the test is finding in my urine, or if perhaps it varies naturally from test to test depending on the amount of ink used and etc. Also, this is a little off topic, and Perhaps covered in many other threads, but it would be handy to have the answers clumped together nicely in this thread. If the preliminary tests are always strips in labs, as brandon and others have said, are they tested for the amount of nitrates, creatine, and all those other important chemicals. Or do the strips perhaps require those chemicals to show a result at all. Early thanks to anyone with the knowledge to answer this :D. I know its a long post, but I home test often, and have always wondered if a faint line for my home test would be a positive at a lab.

"If the preliminary tests are always strips in labs". Bad way of wording that. What Im getting at here is how often the tests are examined for specific gravity. Is that a normal thing in all labs. Its just that as I read through these posts Im kind of getting a mixed idea. It sounds like they just dip test for a preliminary and if you come up negative it doesn't get sent to the Gas test. Where does the specific gravity come into this picture. I ask this because I will be willingly submitting a sample to a lab of my choice to look good for a court date, and I wonder on normal procedure there.

With the way you mention heavy usage and detoxing I can't help but wonder what your smoking history is/was like when referring to the heavy usage/detoxing. Do you mean daily usage and/or detoxing? Was that a week to detox with or without dilution? Just wondering.....

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Originally Posted by KNOTME66

With the way you mention heavy usage and detoxing I can't help but wonder what your smoking history is/was like when referring to the heavy usage/detoxing. Do you mean daily usage and/or detoxing? Was that a week to detox with or without dilution? Just wondering.....

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I had my first mandated drug test coming up and I knew several months before hand that Id have it (job test). I was curious about metabolisms and my own. Id spend about a month or more using several times daily (the first test I gave myself was after about 2 years of daily smoking) then stop and detox hard with exercise the first few days and a steady regimen of water and essential vitamins because I normally dehydrate myself. Im lazy on that stuff and on a daily basis I take in at max only a few cups of water. So I stepped up my water intake by alot for that week, probably well over my daily need each day. ( I know everyone says drinking lots of water days before the test doesnt help you get clean, but it helped me come back from being dehydrated to being normal again). I was diluted when I tested for sure, and I didnt take into account my gravity because it was just the home test (although my vits were always fine, with the pee being bright yellow, creatine was probably also fine because I was active, electrolytes I have no idea).

Are you talking about Branall1 when you say Brandon as in the author of the truth behind drug testing thread? I closed it because while he gave some good info, he had a lot of crap in there too. This was one of the number one offending statements about almost all lab tests get a test strip then those that are "positive" (the actual word should be non negative) get the GC/MS testing. See he was a salesperson for a drug testing company and not involved in the clinical aspects of the company and that's why he was a little off with some things. If it is a lab test like Labcorp or Quest, they send the sample through immunoassay testing first, then any non negative samples go through GC/MS. Immunoassay technology is used in instant testing strips but they aren't using strips, they are conducting immunoassay through lab machines. Immunoassay is much cheaper than GC/MS but almost as accurate. So yes, to make more money they don't send every sample off to GC/MS, only those that fail immunoassay. Failing immunoassay requires confirmation thus why you will see me refer to samples that fail immunoassay as non-negative because they aren't considered positive until failing GC/MS confirmation. But they aren't running immunoassay tests with instant dip stick tests in most cases.

If they put your sample in a vail or two split sample vials, chances are it will be sent to the central testing facility where it will receive immunoassay and validity testing. If the sample fails immunoassay, then it will go to GC/MS. Most places are merely collection sites that send the sample to one central location that may handle a city or a region, depemnding on population, etc. There is no need to put the expensive testing equipment in each collection site.

An option available to an employer is the strip first however but it is rare. Usually this will be done like this : You go into the bathroom and void into the sample cup, you come out and some urine is used on a test strip right then and there in front of you, if the strip is non negative, the rest of you sample will be placed in one or two vials and sent off for the complete test as above. They can opt to use validity instant strip tests to check the validity on these too. Some probation officers who use instant strips will also use instant validity testing strips too.

See, a lot of what was in Branall's thread was talking about employment testing and you are talking about probation testing it looks like. If you think employers are trying to get out cheap, think about how cheap the government is trying to get out. Most probation officers will use the dip stick test then send off the non negative ones out for complete lab testing to save as much money as possible. If you want to know if they do validity testing with instant strips, you are going to have to figure that out by observing carefully or asking or whatever means.


If you can understand immunassay technology then you can understand the part with the faint lines. You can use a search engine to learn about immunoassay technology and monoclonal antibodies but basically they use genetically engineered immune system cells from mice to help mediate a chemical reaction in either the strip or the lab equipment. The antibodies "recognize" THC metabolites and if you at or above 50 ng/ml THC metabolites (I have never seen a test strip for other than the 50 ng/ml cutoff but in the lab immunoassay testing they can use 20, 50, 100 ) the reaction that forms the line won't occur and no line. Now most people will say that a faint line indicates you are close to the limit but still passing. There are some members that say the darkness of the line doesn't matter (I know Burnt Toast is one member that says that) but based on what I know about immunassay I do believe that one reason why a line might be faint is you are close to the limit but there can be other reasons why the line is faint. Now realize that the control line is usually darker no matter what you do and you may even be completely clean and still the line may be faint or not as dark as the control line.

If the line can be photographed or photocopied, it is a line.

Also keep in mind my metabolism was probably at the highest it has ever been in my life and my body fat index (which was tested numerous times, pinchers and electrodes) was about 10%. I was doing all of this testing after coming out of a season of wrestling so I was in the best shape I have ever been in. Don't base how long your thc half life is after me, just an fyi. Everybodys different.

Thanks for the timely reply FBR, I was hoping you'd be on to catch wind of this. Im not necessarily probation testing or else Id be much more wary and lay off for a month. I have a court date coming up regarding a VERY UNFAIR marijuana charge (arent they all). My lawyer and I agree that having a clean test will make me look alot better in the eyes of the court. Im not sure if testing on that day will be mandated. I will be willingly going into whatever place I see fit to have a test that can be documented as proof to the court. Do you happen to know of any way to tell testing procedures for local companies/know if testing the day of a preliminary hearing for dui's is standard (longshot I know, much better question for my lawyer). Also, this is off topic, and feel free to not answer, however I respect your input and I didn't see that you contributed on the niacin post. Niacin is part of my daily routine after exercise. I base this after the practice done by scientologists to rid the body of toxins (I am NOT a scientologist!!!!!, avid agnostic and slight moralist, no offense to anyone). It seems the process makes sense, expanding the capillaries and allowing greater blood flow which would result in a higher rate of detoxification, but I wanted to see if you had any insight on the subject.

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Originally Posted by FakeBoobsRule

Are you talking about Branall1 when you say Brandon as in the author of the truth behind drug testing thread? I closed it because while he gave some good info, he had a lot of crap in there too. This was one of the number one offending statements about almost all lab tests get a test strip then those that are "positive" (the actual word should be non negative) get the GC/MS testing. See he was a salesperson for a drug testing company and not involved in the clinical aspects of the company and that's why he was a little off with some things. If it is a lab test like Labcorp or Quest, they send the sample through immunoassay testing first, then any non negative samples go through GC/MS. Immunoassay technology is used in instant testing strips but they aren't using strips, they are conducting immunoassay through lab machines. Immunoassay is much cheaper than GC/MS but almost as accurate. So yes, to make more money they don't send every sample off to GC/MS, only those that fail immunoassay. Failing immunoassay requires confirmation thus why you will see me refer to samples that fail immunoassay as non-negative because they aren't considered positive until failing GC/MS confirmation. But they aren't running immunoassay tests with instant dip stick tests in most cases.

If they put your sample in a vail or two split sample vials, chances are it will be sent to the central testing facility where it will receive immunoassay and validity testing. If the sample fails immunoassay, then it will go to GC/MS. Most places are merely collection sites that send the sample to one central location that may handle a city or a region, depemnding on population, etc. There is no need to put the expensive testing equipment in each collection site.

An option available to an employer is the strip first however but it is rare. Usually this will be done like this : You go into the bathroom and void into the sample cup, you come out and some urine is used on a test strip right then and there in front of you, if the strip is non negative, the rest of you sample will be placed in one or two vials and sent off for the complete test as above. They can opt to use validity instant strip tests to check the validity on these too. Some probation officers who use instant strips will also use instant validity testing strips too.

See, a lot of what was in Branall's thread was talking about employment testing and you are talking about probation testing it looks like. If you think employers are trying to get out cheap, think about how cheap the government is trying to get out. Most probation officers will use the dip stick test then send off the non negative ones out for complete lab testing to save as much money as possible. If you want to know if they do validity testing with instant strips, you are going to have to figure that out by observing carefully or asking or whatever means.


If you can understand immunassay technology then you can understand the part with the faint lines. You can use a search engine to learn about immunoassay technology and monoclonal antibodies but basically they use genetically engineered immune system cells from mice to help mediate a chemical reaction in either the strip or the lab equipment. The antibodies "recognize" THC metabolites and if you at or above 50 ng/ml THC metabolites (I have never seen a test strip for other than the 50 ng/ml cutoff but in the lab immunoassay testing they can use 20, 50, 100 ) the reaction that forms the line won't occur and no line. Now most people will say that a faint line indicates you are close to the limit but still passing. There are some members that say the darkness of the line doesn't matter (I know Burnt Toast is one member that says that) but based on what I know about immunassay I do believe that one reason why a line might be faint is you are close to the limit but there can be other reasons why the line is faint. Now realize that the control line is usually darker no matter what you do and you may even be completely clean and still the line may be faint or not as dark as the control line.

If the line can be photographed or photocopied, it is a line.

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Ok, Well, If I go into my PO and test with a faint line ( cause i believe she uses home tests) is she gonna send it into a lab to see? Or is that up to her. I mean if I pass technically bye the directions, but there is an indication that it was in my system recently, will she act on this?

The thc faint line test strip debate is still on. I have tested a bottle of brand new QF and it was as faint my dilluted urine. Its odd that they don't make the line as dark as the control line.

In that case, I doubt a faint line would cause your PO to send it in. Im sure its all routine to her by now. A line shows, she chunks it, and you move on. Just dont give her any reason to be suspicious and I doubt she would be.

I've ran through two dilution trials this year where I've compared first mornings void with the diluted void. In both cases, the first mornings void showed very faint lines (didn't try to copy or photograph the line), while the diluted void showed an easily recognizable line. At least in these two instances, color density seemed to correlate with THC metabolite levels.

Yeah, I've been doing those same morning as compared to middle day tests and coming up with very different colors the past few days. I think as long as a line shows your passing, but I do believe that drawing a correlation between the color density and the amount of metabolites would be pretty legitimate. I've had some "ghost" lines that I believe would test non-negative in a lab too.

Here's a photograph of my 'faint line' from yesterday. I guess since it shows on the photograph I would likely be OK without diluting. I think I'll mildly dilute anway for peace of mind. I've mildly diluted in the past with success.