It is just amazing how supply follows the need and if the need is urine then businessmen will supply urine – even if it is fake urine – called synthetic urine.
The need for urine is for drug tests. When a person undergoes a drug test, they typically need to supply their urine and this urine is then tested for drug substances. This is how it is supposed to work in practice. However, people like to cheat and the first obvious thing that was tried was dilution.
So the testers got smart.
They came up with a way to measure density.
So the cheaters then started adding other components to it and the testers started testing for acidity and concentration of other waste substances such as creatinine (a metabolite of creatine that is an amino acid metabolized by the body).
So the cheaters then started adding components to their urine that would reconstitute the liquid such that it matched urine with all the components that were being tested. The one component that is present in urine is urea and that was easy to procure.
So, there is a checklist for synthetic urine as from this website.
Is within the normal human pH range (between 4.6 and 8)
Urine sample is within the normal specific gravity range compared to water
that your sample contains urea
Is submitted at the correct temperature (between 90 and 100°F)
That the Creatinine levels are greater than 15mg per kilo of body weight
It contains uric acid
This is available on the market and that same website will also compare the different products that are available with names such as “ClearChoice”, “Spectrum Labs Quick Fix” and “Monkey Whizz”
The states have tried to ban synthetic urine for obvious reasons – who would want to buy synthetic urine if not for a nefarious purpose????
At the same time, the testers are not sitting quietly – they are coming up with new ways to test for new compounds that will authenticate the sample. Some examples that they use are to test for caffeine (present in tea or coffee) but also other metabolites such as urobilin that are produced by the body. If the cheaters have their way, they will learn and continue incorporating more substances into their concoction of synthetic urine.
In conclusion, chemists and biologists on both the sides of the table are active with their analytical instruments trying to foil the other party. And this is obviously happening because there is a market for their services more than in the Pharma and Biotech job market for analytical services!