Disturbing trend: drinking bleach to try to pass drug tests

People are drinking diluted house bleach saying it will clean out your system and allow you to pass a urine test.

A disturbing way to try and pass a drug test is becoming more popular, and experts say it can kill you.

People are drinking diluted house bleach saying it will clean out your system and allow you to pass a urine test. Some are even posting videos on YouTube showing themselves mixing household bleach with water, and drinking it.

"They are desperate. They will try anything to try and prove to mom and dad I am not doing this. If I try and google something quick to see how to beat a test, they will try it because they are so desperate they will try anything no matter what the risk,” says Stephanie Knutson, who works at Sanford Health's drug analysis lab in Fargo, N.D. She has seen all the tricks, but says in the lab they can detect cheaters and even call them out.

"Drinking bleach will not allow you to pass a test; it will not mask the metabolites we are looking for," she says. What bleach can do, is kill you. "It could do corrosive damage to your esophagus. In the lining of your stomach, it could cause you to have hyponatremia where your sodium goes sky high. Your blood pressure, your heart rate, you could go into a coma or possible death. It's so dangerous. Don't do it. Don't do it."

Knutson says people will also try buying synthetic urine, drinking detox juices, or buying other products, sometimes at a high cost.