Facing a drug screening test?

[Mastertank1]

Here's a heads up.
Last night, the Discovery channel program Mythbusters offered what I regard as conclusive proof that eating a poppyseed bagel or cake can cause you to fail a drug screening by showing a false positive for codeine, morphine or both!

This starts as soon as 1/2 hour after you BEGIN to eat the food with poppyseeds in it, and can persist for 72 hours!

A medical doctor they interviewed stated that tens of thousands of people every year have their lives ruined by false positives caused in exactly this way, because the US drug testing companies refuse to admit that their tests can ever result in a false positive.

I smell a class action lawsuit brewing!

Incidentally, for those who don't know; any eastern European pastry with the word Mohn in the name contains a sweetened poppyseed paste. One teaspoon of that stuff has the same poppyseed content as two dozen poppyseed bagels!

 

[drew70]

I'm radically opposed to drug testing. Rate my on-the-job performance, not my recreational activities!

 

[unclebill]

There was a policeman who was fired from his job for failing a drug test in my area, and after further testing they determined that a poppyseed bagel did indeed cause him to test positive. He got his job back, but did not sue. How bizzare. Being in construction, I get drug tested quite often, and can`t afford a mistake like that to happen to me.

 

[Redmage]

This isn't a secret. I worked in a drug testing lab 10 years ago, and it was common knowledge even then in the trade that poppyseeds would cause a false positive for opiates. Actually it isn't a false positive, technically. Morphine comes from opium, which comes from poppies. So actually poppyseeds do contain opiates. The levels are too low to cause a drug response in most people, but easily high enough to show up on the sensitive tests used today.

 

[Redmage]

I'm radically opposed to drug testing. Rate my on-the-job performance, not my recreational activities!

We agree twice in one week? I'm not making any long-term investments after this.

 

[EBunbury]

For a previous job, I had a security clearance (worked at the Nevada Test Site), and drug testing was routine. Out of several thousand employees, there were a couple positive tests a year resulting from eating poppy seeds. (The usual culprit was the poppy seed rolls Mastertank1 mentioned; these are rolls with a sweetened paste with a tablespoon or so of poppy seeds, not just a Kaiser roll with a few seeds on top.) If someone tested positive, a second, more expensive test to distinguish among metabolites could help decide whether the opiates were injected on ingested, and also look for other chemicals found in poppy seeds. Since I worked in the chemistry lab there, the cases came across my desk.

When I first got the job there, I was even warned by the medical staff not to eat poppy seed rolls for the first month, because I could expect a "random" test sometime within that first month.

Forensics folks are well aware of this, but not all employers are, so yes, if you know you'll be tested soon, avoiding the rolls can save you some hassle.

In our case, this was well-known and I never heard of it causing a problem, but I can see where if somebody isn't aware of the other test option, somebody's life could really get messed up.

Thanks, Mastertank1, for the word Mohn. I love those rolls, so now I can look for them under that name.

🙂 E. Bunbury

 

[mrfrench58]

Stop by your local GNC store. They have some products that can help you pass the test.

 

[TklDuo-Ann]

Stop by your local GNC store. They have some products that can help you pass the test.

So do many head shops. But, most of the products I've seen out there are meant to cleans the system of any chemical tag from weed. I'm not sure if they'd work on opiates as well. Of, perhaps, there are other products out there geared towards that.

 

[ChosenofMystra]

I'm radically opposed to drug testing. Rate my on-the-job performance, not my recreational activities!

I agree with you there Drew. You hit the nail right on the head. What does it matter what I do in my spare time as long as it doesn't affect my job performance.

 

[drew70]

We agree twice in one week? I'm not making any long-term investments after this.

I know, man. People are starting to wonder about us. 😉

 

[BLUE_THUNDER]

drug tests suck......they are intrusive and in most cases unjustified. as far as the cleansers go, i used this stuff called "vales" in the late 90's to pass a couple tests for jobs, but i only smoked pot, never done anything else. there are probably much better products on the market now however....a friend of mine recently took a position at a car dealership in las vegas and they have random drug screens once a month for every department. not only unrine testing, but HAIR testing as well. if it was a nuclear weapons depo i could understand that, but i mean come on.....are they afraid he is going to get high and sell someone the wrong color truck?

 

[tickledgirl]

I know, man. People are starting to wonder about us. 😉

Aha, the truth is exposed. Drew & Red are secretly lesbian lovers!! (Can you tell I just got done reading the "men posing as women" thread? 🙂 )

 

[Redmage]

Aha, the truth is exposed. Drew & Red are secretly lesbian lovers!! (Can you tell I just got done reading the "men posing as women" thread? 🙂 )

Clearly the only way to settle this question is for you to let me tie you down and tickle you.

 

[locker669]

The policy at my company (and many I have worked at) is that they test you just before you are hired. As long as you don't do something that makes them think you are on something you will never be tested again. I don't have to worry, I don't do drugs, only weed.

 

[4Pawz]

I have no problems with drug testing. When you take your tests, they have a section where you can list anything you are taking that may show a positive, this includes some kinds of foods, caffeine and OTC drugs. If you note it, shouldn't be having any problems. One of my medications shows up on my drug tests every time, I listed it properly, I have never had issues with this.

It has been well known that caffeine, poppy seeds, Tylenol, and a few other things can cause a positive on a drug test. If I have known about it since 1998, I am sure plenty of others were aware.

Personally, I don't want to work with anyone using. I work hard and leave my personal life at home. If someone is coming to work with any kind of a drug in their system, they are risking my job and my performance. Big no no, I don't work my butt off to have it ruined because someone wanted to "have a good time."

I undergo random drug tests with my job. I accept them, and have no issues with them. I'm lucky enough that the rest of my coworkers agree. It gives me a good sense of security.

 

[b0xr]

You could also fail a drug test if you''ve been drinking tonic water. You will test positive for quinine.

I am all for drug testing...back in the 70s I tested all kinds of drugs 😕

 

[Illtcklu]

*off to get poppyseed bagal and weave in and out of traffic* See you in five to ten years!

 

[Redmage]

You could also fail a drug test if you''ve been drinking tonic water. You will test positive for quinine.

I don't think that's quite true. That is, you will test positive for quinine (though in extremely small amounts - it's just there for flavor nowadays), but I don't think that will fail you on a drug test. No one much cares if you're trying to avoid getting malaria.

 

[tickledgirl]

I don't have to worry, I don't do drugs, only weed.

Am I missing the joke here? 'Cause marijuana is illegal and definitely picked up by drug tests.

Personally, I don't want to work with anyone using

If there was a test that'd show whether an employee is impaired in the workplace, I would have no problem with that.*

But why is it any business of an employers what I do in my free time? If I show up for work sober and ready to work why do you care -- and why should my employer care -- if I had a glass of wine or a joint last night?

*Come to think of it, there is a test that shows whether an employee is impaired. It's called competent management. If an employee shows up drunk, or stoned, or not having slept, or unable to perform their job duties for any reason, a good manager will be able to detect that by observing employee performance. And if they can't detect it then either performance isn't impaired, (so why should they care?) or they need better managers (and drugs tests aren't going to help).

 

[b0xr]

Redmage...I had a friend that failed the NYPD drug screening test because they found quinine in his blood test....it is true.

 

[Redmage]

Redmage...I had a friend that failed the NYPD drug screening test because they found quinine in his blood test....it is true.

I can't imagine why. It would be like finding aspirin or pseudoephedrine in his urine. Quinine is not an illegal drug and has no performance-enhancing or narcotic properties. Its main use is to help prevent malaria. I've no idea why the NYPD or anyone else would care about it.

The only information I can find that casts any light on this is a claim that I've seen in several sources that quinine could cause a false positive for opiates. In a situation like that, the problem is the test itself.

There are two major types of drug tests: Immunoassay and GC/MS. Immunoassay uses special antibodies to bind to whatever it is you're testing for, then measures the amount of bound antibody in the sample. It's fast, fairly specific, and above all very cheap. This makes it the method of choice when money is an issue, and it's the most common method of drug testing. The main problem with immunoassays is that they're only fairly specific. It is possible to get a false positive off of something that's just close in structure to whatever it is you're looking for.

GC/MS stands for Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry. It's much more sensitive than immunoassay, and much more specific too. However it takes about twice as long and costs 10 times as much, or even more. The equipment itself is much more costly, and it takes a lot more training to interpret the results correctly. GC/MS is the method of choice when money is no object, and when your test has to stand up in court. It's used mainly in athletic and criminal drug testing.

GC/MS could easily tell the difference between quinine and an opiate like heroin or morphine. So if your friend failed due to quinine, my guess would be that the NYPD was sending their samples to a lab that relied on immunoassays.

 

[Mastertank1]

I think I can clear up

the quinine business.
In the NYC drug subculture (and remember that half of all heroine addicts in the USA live in NYC) quinine is VERY frequently used as 'cut' to decrease the strength of heroine. This is done both to increase profits and to avoid killing off the customer base. (A known method of murder is to give an addict a shot which has not been cut as much as is customary).
For this reason, the presence of quinine, unless the individual has been prescribed it for malaria, has been accepted as evidence of heroine use because it persists in the bloodstream longer than heroine.
Also, in the USA, unlike the rest of the world, the standard prescription for malaria is long term daily doses of atabrine (synthetic quinine) in tablet form, instead of the massive intravenous doses of quinine used everywhere else.
The rationale is that 1 in 250,000 people has a possibly fatal allergic reaction to quinine. This ignores the drawback, which is that the quinine results in a permanent cure, while atabrine results in a controlled low level infection for life, which will recur whenever the system is stressed.
Given the way the FDA works in the USA, I'm convinced that the real reason is the selling atabrine for a lifetime makes the drug companies a LOT more money than selling three high dose injections of quinine!
To return to the main point, the common use of quinine as cut in heroine is why the drug tests screen for it.

 

[b0xr]

Thank you for clearing that up MasterTank.

 

[Redmage]

Thanks, Tank. I have to say, that's one of the poorest rationales for banning a drug that I've ever seen, but the checking I did confirms it. The problem, obviously, is that quinine can come from many different sources (one site I found listed about 200), and is usually not associated with heroin. If the test is being given as part of a drug treatment program, then I think using quinine as an indicator may be valid (as long as the patient is warned about other things that may contain quinine). But for general screening checking for quinine is just foolish.

 

[Icycle]

Also, in the USA, unlike the rest of the world, the standard prescription for malaria is long term daily doses of atabrine (synthetic quinine) in tablet form, instead of the massive intravenous doses of quinine used everywhere else.
The rationale is that 1 in 250,000 people has a possibly fatal allergic reaction to quinine. This ignores the drawback, which is that the quinine results in a permanent cure, while atabrine results in a controlled low level infection for life, which will recur whenever the system is stressed.
Given the way the FDA works in the USA, I'm convinced that the real reason is the selling atabrine for a lifetime makes the drug companies a LOT more money than selling three high dose injections of quinine!

Can you cite some sources for your claims regarding US malaria treatment protocols, and the differing efficacies of various treatments? I checked the CDC website, and it looks like the recommended treatment protocols for malaria in the United States make no mention of Atabrine (a.k.a. Quinacrine).

http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/pdf/treatmenttable.pdf

The CDC also a FAQ that talks about Plasmodium vivax and P. ovale forms of malaria, which can remain dormant in your liver for months or years before causing a relapse. If you are properly diagnosed with one of these types of malaria, your doctor should also give you a 14 day prescription of primaquine to prevent these relapses.

http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/faq.htm#treatment