Drug tested and scared

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in BSc, ASN- RN, MBA.

I am an RN for 2 yrs now and recently had a nurse claim narcs were missing when she was given meds. It was fine when we counted them after my shift, but she claims the count must have been wrong.

I do not do drugs and would not. I worked ten years for my education while being a single parent to three kids, no way would I risk it.

They asked me and the nurse prior to my shift to do a drug test. She got hers back yesterday - I am still waiting on mine.

I gave them a list of all the supplements I take (vitamins, fish oils etc) and mentioned that I drink some herbal teas. Out of sheer anxiousness I started looking on the net for what could cause false positives on tests. Imagine my surprise that a tea I drink might show a positive test for cocaine!!! OMG!!!

The tea I drink is made by Teavana - a chain of premium tea stores. It is called "My Morning Mate" and is touted to have as much caffeine as coffee but with less jitteriness.

I found this and several articles about Mate Teas: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1725048/pdf/v039p00e37.pdf

I am so scared about coming up positive because of this tea. Has anyone else drank this tea?

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No....haven't had that. Copy the articles. IF there's any issue with your drug screen, bring in the articles, offer to test again (and lay off the tea until this is over - LOL).... and don't assume the worst :)

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Specializes in BSc, ASN- RN, MBA.

I am trying to stay calm. I am up for promotion and this could ruin everything I have worked to achieve. Thanks for your encouragement.

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I am trying to stay calm. I am up for promotion and this could ruin everything I have worked to achieve. Thanks for your encouragement.

Your track record will help :) Hang in there- and see what happens. How much you drink, how long the half-life of the primary ingredient in the tea, all go into whether or not it comes up positive.... If you have a good relationship with your boss, you might consider talking to him/her about this before the results come back. :heartbeat

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Specializes in Cardiothoracic ICU.

If they are not looking for a reason to fire you than you will be fine.

Maybe your paranoia comes from tea withdrawal ;)

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Specializes in BSc, ASN- RN, MBA.

I haven't drank the tea since last monday. I would make a pot and my oldest daughter and I would drink it over a period of 2 days.

The week before, she came back from a Honduras mission trip and brought Honduran coffee home. I had one glass and had heart palpatations for 4 days afterwards!!! Yes, I saw my doctor who said lay off the coffee.

The tea never did that to me!

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Specializes in Addiction, Psych, Geri, Hospice, MedSurg.

If it comes back positive (very remote chance), ask for a blood sample. They are more accurate and actually measures the amt of the "drug" in your system. In your case, there will be none... Or, offer a hair follicle test. You'll be fine!

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Specializes in ER, Trauma.

Relax! There are so many flaws in the routine drug tests that pretty much all they do is scare the bejeebers out of nurses!

"Oh yeah, I take Motrin regularly so the metabolites could show up positive for cocaine, and to protect my stomach I eat poppy seed bagels, so the opiates is also a false positive." The list goes on and on.

I'm not sure if the blood tests are more reliable, will take others word for it. The absolute gold standard would be gas chromatography which can't be fooled, but is quite expensive.

The lesson is, if you don't do drugs, you can prove it no matter what they say.

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Certainly blood or hair samples would clear you. On the remote chance you did test positive.

It is a shame that nurses must torture themselves over issues like this .Holy Mother Of God! We can't even drink tea??

Is there any other profession that puts their members through this kind of BS?:mad:

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.

Would it be the specific narc that was missing that they would be testing for? If by chance it came up positive for simply opiates related to the Tea, then wouldn't they have to test further to determine the exact drug?

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I believe the tea you are drinking is Yerba mate...and the tea from your article is mate de coca. Your tea is from a shrub in South America, the other is a tea made from the leaves of a coca plant. They are very different entities.

http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/69297.cfm regarding yerba mate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca_tea regarding coca tea

Best wishes

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Specializes in BSc, ASN- RN, MBA.

Elthia,

Most sites I saw mentioned both interchangibly - I sure hope you are right! Thank You.

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