Excuseable reasons for failing drug test?

The volume of poppy seeds you'd have to eat is pretty staggering for it to cause a positive for opiates on a drug test. We're talking like 6 or 7 poppy seed bagels in an hour before you get a hit. A single roll or even a big slice of poppy seed bread/cake is not enough. (I'm basing this off a Ted Allen food test show I saw on TV this weekend. Clearly that makes me an expert.) ;D

My favorite was the bdad who looked at the caseworker and the GAL with a totally straight face, and told them that he must be testing positive because he had sex with somebody who was using. Dude.....sexually transmitted COCAINE?!?! :-)

FOOD DETECTIVE with Ted Allen just did a story on that. He had several people as test subjects. One ate a poppy seed bagel. One had a poppy seed cake filled with poppy seeds. The bagel person came back "clean" but the cake person came back "positive". Then they did a test where a person kept eating poppy seed bagels (one after another) and was tested after each bagel. I think she had to eat 11 bagels in order to fail the test. Not sure, though

With someone who already has a history of drug use, I would say they would get no chance to explain it away. The poor kids are going back into care. I hope the former foster parents can take them.

Just wondering since I have someone to ask now:evilgrin: . Would taking a lot of OTC cold medicine cause a positive meth test (since meth is often produced with this?) Also, could taking lots of OTC medicine produce a meth like high? I'm sure it wouldn't be the same, but I wondered if it would give a speed like effect. I was just wondering because my children's mom takes tons of both prescription pain pills, and also OTC stuff (I think for "allergies"). To be honest, I don't know what kind of allergy med's she's taken but given her history of drug abuse, and my new found knowledge that meth is sometimes produced with ephedrine or psuedoephedrine, I was wondering if she could be abusing the cold/allergy med's as well.

Many OTC cold alergy drugs are taken in conjunction with methadone to enhance the methadone high to mimic heroin.. Prescription pain pills and some OTC cold meds will definately produce a high. Benedryl OTC is know to make some people drowsy and different OTC drug affect people differently. I do know that Ephedrine drugs can cause jitters and a speed like feeling for mone people too. My guess is if she is an addct with a past history of drug use, unless she has one heck of a cold, she is trying to find something that will mimic a high. Also, some addicts just like to take pills, it is a mental thing where they think the pills will make them feel good. Don't forget even if an addict is given prescription pain meds, they will more frequent than not try and get high using the medication. EZ

ROFLOL! The only story I've heard was from my children's birth mom, and after her first positive Cocaine test, she said it was from being in the same room where they were smoking it. She said it had to be wrong because her drug of choice was Meth. Later she had a drug test done at the hospital to prove that she was clean...but she didn't have them test her for cocaine! Since then there's been probably at least 4 more positive tests.

Very interesting. It's funny that her caseworkers has not addressed this...even though the review panel said that DFCS needed to. They said she had over 12 prescriptions for pain pills and bottles and bottles of the stuff. I would think she was just selling it, except they say she tests positive for the pain meds every time.

Truth be told, Many doctors who precribe pain meds are doing drug tests to confirm that the patient is in fact taking the drug. The market for illegal drugs and narcitics is so large and profitable for the economucally challenged. You would be suprised at the number of peoplewho obtain narcotics for the soul purpose of selling them. This is espeially true of those who go methadone. The continue to doctor shop to sell the pills. Bear in mind, I do not know the person you are speaking of but my guess is she is using the pain meds and the OTCs to enhance the high. Where there is so many prescriptions she is probably selling some too. Here is teh thing, because she does have a legal prescription, there is little that could be done. In other words, the legal prescriptions basically are giving her the green light to use. If this happened to one of our patients, we would have them sign a release to speak with the doctor who wrote the presdriptions. There is a very strong possibility he is unaware that this person has a history of addiction. EZ

Aside from the question of whether the drug test was accurate or not, there is the question of whether they could have their children returned or not.... which is up to the judge. We've dealt with a judge who believed that "relapse is part of recovery" and returned children to addicts who had relapsed. So, sadly, one failed drug test might not be enough.

She obtains her perscriptions by going to different hospital emergency rooms, and claims to be in pain due to her teeth. From my understanding her teeth are really bad from the meth, so I don't doubt they are hurting. It just seemed odd to me that she would have 12+ perscriptions UNFILLED to show the panel back in November last year... Why would she be going from hospital to hospital to get perscriptions and then not fill them? Made no sense to me.