Failed a drug test while being monitored by the board for past substance issues

Nurses Recovery

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I was placed on my state boards monitoring program for 1 year because of several past arrests for Marijuana that I disclosed while applying for my license.  With 3 months to go, I failed for Kratom, which is an over the counter herbal supplement that is mildly mood altering. I was using it from time to time to relieve pain from a crushed disk in my neck. Incredibly stupid in hindsight.

I was told I have to go in for an evaluation where I have to stay overnight for 2 nights.

 

How bad is this? Is there any chance I won't lose my license? I am worried sick .

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Kratom is now considered like an opiate and addiction to it is treated with suboxone and you can go into opiate withdrawals that last longer than heroin or oxy. I'm not surprised they dinged you for using that. Not many people realize this who use kratom (I worked addictions previously and we saw this frequently).  I hope you follow the processes to keep your license you shouldn't loose it if you follow the steps, but you will need to stop using these substances or any others.

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Arr-tistRN said:

Kratom is now considered like an opiate and addiction to it is treated with suboxone and you can go into opiate withdrawals that last longer than heroin or oxy. I'm not surprised they dinged you for using that. Not many people realize this who use kratom (I worked addictions previously and we saw this frequently).  I hope you follow the processes to keep your license you shouldn't loose it if you follow the steps, but you will need to stop using these substances or any others.

I had no idea this substance was so controversial.  I never got any kind of "high" from it and never had any urge to take it every day. I started taking a capsul for sleep once or twice a week after looking for a natural supplement I could take in place of something like ambien or xanax. This was the website I came across that led my to trying it. I should have been more careful.  Ugh 

 

https://www.alaskasleep.com/~alaskasl/how-to-use-kratom-for-sleep/

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Kratom is interesting in that at low levels is a stimulant and I think and higher levels more of a pain effect. Interesting but unfortunately potentially addicting and there isn't good standardized information about it. Most of the guys I worked with at my clinic had a story similar to yoshifty. one really explained it all to them upfront, pretty shitty.

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Specializes in ICU, CM, UM.

Just curious,  what came of this if you don't mind sharing and are still on the site?  In your monitoring program was kratom listed as a restricted substance (I have not received my intro packet yet so I'm not quite sure how it works and I know that kratom is legal in many states but I know they say no to legal things like benadryl, hand sanitizer or mouth wash)? What happened after your eval? 

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