How to Pass a Drug and Alcohol Evaluation

How To Pass a Drug and Alcohol Evaluation For Dummies

The majority of you who are sure you do not have a drinking problem would walk into a drug and alcohol evaluation confident that your honesty would yield a passing result. After revealing to the counselor that you only have a few beers after work or only drink with friends on the weekend or have a glass of red wine with dinner every night (which has even been proved to be medicinal to the health) you are confident that you will be declared to have zero drug or alcohol problems .The disappointing part would be at the end of the test when the counselor tells you his recommendation is intensive outpatient treatment and that he has found you to have an alcohol abuse problem. Stunned and a little enraged you have no idea how he or she came to that conclusion. Even worse is that the results will be seen by most likely by the courts (if court ordered) and the consequences could result in months of your life being devoted towards expensive time consuming drug and alcohol classes that you don't feel you deserve.

Now here is what you need to know to avoid a failing score:(oh and feel free to play some of my favorite songs with my play-list over here, it isn't spam or a link or anything just some cool beats that might make the read a bit more interesting -->)

Four things you need to know before taking the test.

First, is presentation of yourself. I would advise you not to walk in there like a nun, If your there for a DUI or MIP you've obviously not had enough self control to avoid that. Proclaiming that you never drink nor do drugs for no particular reason will cause suspicion, and will be taken into consideration by the counselor. At the same time you need to appear like a law abiding citizen to the counselor (it will make you more believable).  The counselor will be less likely to believe anything you say if you’re rocking a Bob Marley shirt and sportin dreadlocks along w/ facial piercings, even if you are being 100% honest about never having tried pot, so dress for church with grandma. Another important factor is attitude; drugs make people agitated, lazy, hyper, nervous, depressed etc...Do NOT show any of these traits. Try to maintain a positively upbeat attitude with all the necessary manners on the side. Be sure to show concern about whatever you were arrested for and make a point that you have made a change for the better because of it, don't act like it doesn't bother you. 

 Second, as hard as it may be for your conscience, you have to throw honesty out the door, you do not get bonus points for honest. When the evaluation is over, the counselor wont be the one to fully decide whether or not you passed....The checklist that he’s been scoring on will tell him if you've passed or not. This is not a mental battle vs. the counselor, this is a battle between you and the evaluation test. Do not worry the counselor will not call you out on what you tell him, they do not have any information about you other than your driving record and arrest report. It all comes down to what you look like on paper at the end of the test, and what your score turns out to be will determine the consequences. It doesn't care what your opinion is regarding what is alcohol abuse is and neither does the counselor. So for all you rebels of the system (stick it to the man) keep your stubbornness in a box under the bed at home because it will won’t help you.

 Third, do your research. These tests are designed to trip you up on your own answers. The evaluation contains a series of questions, some very similar to each other but worded differently to see if your answering consistently. If your under 21 and say you "only" drink in Canada with your friends, have dates in mind (never admit to having used alcohol or drugs after the arrest unless you got arrested again of course). When asked how much drug of choice you use, have an low amount in mind and stick to it. Practice your answers before hand, don't walk in there and wing it. Google "Michigan Alcohol Assessment Test" and go over the questions and even though it may not contain all the evaluation questions it encompasses the general idea,so get used to answering them all in your favor even despite if a couple may be true about you.

 Fourth, Show up with clean pee. Don't be stupid, to pass the actual test with my advice only to fail a UA it would be a waste of time and confirm only that you are a liar to the counselor.This is a good site to check how long any drug will stay in your system www.alwaystestclean.com/how_long.htm

  Answering evaluation questions

They will ask you if you've ever had a drug and alcohol evaluation before, so unless you've had one for court before say NO, there is no database they can look at that says your parents made you get a drug and alcohol evaluation back in high school. The next thing to remember when answering the questions is that you are new to alcohol or whatever you poison got you to this point. Whatever you got arrested for was a rare freak event that you've never done before. If you were arrested for DUI that's the first and last time you ever drove drunk, if you got an MIP that's the first and last time you ever had it on you. Do not admit to doing the illegal regularly, if you admit to breaking the law multiple times you will lose your law abiding image you are shooting for. If your under 21 and older than 19 say you only drink in Canada legally. Another thing is most times newbie’s to drugs and alcohols are provided the product at first; a big indicator of abuse is you spend a lot of your time focused on getting the product. So make a point that it was provided to you and that you absolutely did not go out of your way to get the alcohol or drug (especially if you’re underage or if it was a drug related charge).

 The next thing to remember is they're looking to see if you've built up a tolerance .Does it take more alcohol or drugs to get you drunk or high now than when you first started to use. Now is not the time to brag about how you drank a whole fifth to yourself that one time or smoked the half ounce blunt for your birthday. If your there for an alcohol charge, say you get drunk off three beers and get sick in the morning as a hangover and that's never changed since you started drinking (chronic drinkers do not get sick after drinking and need a hell of a lot more than three beers to get drunk).For drugs say you only need a single hit to get you high as a kite. Never ever ever ever answer yes when they ask if you drink or do drugs before noon!

 Now to answer the family related questions. Alcohol and drug abuse affects your family life; the evaluation is looking for this. You need to start by answering that no one in your family has had a drug or alcohol problem.Also state that your household is a supportive for your staying sober. Any history of family drug or alcohol abuse will negatively affect your scores. Then move on to say that your family life is great and that in no way has alcohol or drugs had a negative impact on your life. You also need to make it clear that you do not need drugs or alcohol to be social and make friends or go to work, also you do not need to drink or do drugs to "act normal”. 

You also must show that you have a reason to refrain from using alcohol and drugs. Make a point that you have a very active life, sports, girlfriend, clubs, work, kids are all very good distractions from drugs or alcohol. You are less likely to be a repeat offender if you have something to stay sober for.

 The End. I decided to write this post after I was trying to research up on how to pass a drug and alcohol evaluation for my very own legal troubles and came across a large amount of misinformation and hater posts critisizing people asking for help on the subject, and also there was a straight up lack of general information. If you follow my advice it will vastly increase your chance of passing a drug and alcohol evaluation( thanks to a couple of zero tolerance parents while in high school and one recent DUI I've been able to test it personally with passing results on multiple occasions,). If you have any questions or comments feel free to ask and I will answer them to the best of my knowledge. Although If you don't have anything nice to say , DON'T say it, I will ignore you.