help-i'm a student who failed a drug test

[chloe79]

i was just informed that i failed my school (new orleans area) drug test-- i'm convinced that it was a false positive but the school will not allow a retest. i'm really upset and freaking out. has anyone been through this? what is the process with the state board of nursing? any info is appreciated. thanks

[pharmgirl]

It really depends on what you tested positive for. Did you watch them seal it infront of you, if not than you may have a case. If you tested positive for drugs no, however, if you have tested positive for Xanax or codeine as long as you have a script or the bottle with your name on it then you should be ok.

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but this is not always the case, it depends on the facility. Back in August I had a lump removed from my breast. I pushed the surgeon to do it before the semester started. Everything went fine and he prescribed me Hydrocodone for pain. I came home and took one. I woke up the next morning finding the email from our Director that drug screens need to be done within the week. I spoke to the Director and explained the situation. He said that it doesn't matter if you have a prescription or not, the clinical sites will deem your "judgement impaired" and will not be allowed to complete clinicals, which in turn means out of the program. Needless to say, I was freaking out, I called the pharmacist, the surgeon, the BON, the HR dept at the hospital, the head of HR.....all told me the same. Except my surgeon who was livid and said he would go to the ends of earth to fight this for me. Long story short, I waited to the last possible day, did the screen and all was fine. However, just a warning.......depending on your school and clinical facilities, prescription may not matter.

[mb1949]

Happened to one a friend of mine, bad back, took a pain pill from a friend one night when she couldn't take it anymore, a few days later shows up for clinical orientation and is drug tested, she had no script of course, and lost her clinical placement although they let her comeback the next semester.

[DLS_PMHNP, MSN, RN, NP]

Is anybody else picturing their TEETH after eating that?!?

I was.... :)

[kcochrane]

Not to be obtuse, but I'm not sure how we can help you without details. Its hard to help when you don't know exactly what happened. I understand not wanting to post details on the internet...but it does make it pretty much hard to help you besides giving you a pat on the back and wishing you the best. :)

[hypocaffeinemia, BSN, RN]

Poppy seed bagels do not come back positive for opiates that is a myth.

It's not a myth at all:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/poppyseed.asp

http://www.erowid.org/plants/poppy/poppy_testing.shtml

From the second link:

Poppy seeds contain both Morphine and Codeine and can cause false positives for Opiates in urine tests. Most Opiate urine tests have a cut off level of 300 ng/ml. Ingestion of a single poppy seed bagel can produce an opiate level somewhere around 250 ng/ml three hours later. 3 teaspoons of store bought poppy seeds can result in 1200 ng/ml 6 hours later (1). We have read an estimate that 70% of DOT opiate positives are from poppy seeds. The U.S. Military uses cut off levels of 3000 ng/ml in order to minimize false positives.

Meaning, it is easy to trigger a false positive if the testing threshold is overly sensitive, which I imagine varies company to company.

[jpeters84]

What do you mean by "convinced" it was a false positive? Have you not done drugs or did you do drugs long enough ago that you thought they wouldn't show up on the test?

[LuckyKelleyK, RN]

I agree with pp. The fact that you are very vague and not willing to discuss ANY detail implies that you did do drugs, but think you waited long enough. You said "I am convinced it is a false positive", not "I didn't do drugs".

[tailyanker]

my husbands employer is a vegetarian. He tested positive in a urine test and it was explained to him that his diet may have caused the positive. The guy no way takes drugs of any sort.

[krystald409]

id check in to it more

[sunray12]

I take vitamins and eat curry and poppy seed bagels (but never three in one morning) on the regular and I've never tested positive on a drug test.

OP if your test was a false positive then I hope you are able to work this out.

[travel50]

This may have already been said as I have not read each post word for word. But protonix will give a false positive for marijuana.

[chloe79]

yes, thank you.