Susan Horton had been a stay-at-home mom for almost 20 years, and now—pregnant with her fifth child—she felt a hard-won confidence in herself as a mother.
Then she ate a salad from Costco.
Horton didn’t realize that she would be drug-tested before her child’s birth. Or that the poppy seeds in her salad could trigger a positive result on a urine drug screen, the quick test that hospitals often use to check pregnant patients for illicit drugs. Many common foods and medications—from antacids to blood pressure and cold medicines—can prompt erroneous results.
If Horton had been tested under different circumstances—for example, if she was a government employee and required to be tested as part of her job—she would have been entitled to a more advanced test and to a review from a specially trained doctor to confirm the initial result.
And let me guess, she paid for the privilege of being forced to stay 5 days and having her baby taken away from her? Unless she’s got amazing insurance?
Honestly, I’m so glad to live somewhere with public health care.
Tbf I don’t think she wants a payout … she just wants her kid back (and maybe have the testing protocols updated to follow the science instead of the stupidity).
For all those here saying that it can’t happen, here’s some info that says it can.
Poppy Seed Consumption May Be Associated with Codeine-Only Urine Drug Test Results
US Dept of Defense: Service Members Should Avoid Foods With Poppy Seeds
Urinary concentrations of morphine and codeine after consumption of poppy seeds
Poppy Seeds Signal Limitations of Urine Drug Testing Protocols
There was even a Mythbuster episode where they confirmed it. IIRC, their test popped reliably after two bagels.
The last thing I saw about this very topic had mentioned that most newer tests did not have this false positive issue, but many older tests did.
A lot of this article is about drug testing, but this also should remind people how much chaos one shitty, or overworked, nurse can cause.
Omg yes! I perform drug testing and I’ve had instances where nurses called CPS before we could give them a confirmation result causing mayhem for all involved. It makes me want to scream whenever I see screening tests used as evidence against people. Any hospital or government agency making those kinds of decisions based on a screen should be sued to high hell. Also fun fact really high levels of Benadryl will cause you to pop positive for PCP on most drug screens. I’ve had to talk a handful of pediatricians down about that over the years too.
I had a fun event a year ago where I woke up in a Covid ward after surgery because a nurse saw antibodies on a pre-surgery Covid test.
I had covid about a month before, that’s why I still had detectable antibodies. The doctors all knew that. That’s why they admitted me and performed the procedure.
You should have to clear something past an actual doctor if some things are going to get escalated.
I’m sorry but anyone who thinks people with thc in their urine are less valuable than people that don’t, is a worthless piece of human trash themselves. It’s appalling that this is even a thing but more so how many people actually support it staying the way it is.
I was listening to a podcast today or yesterday talking about huge recruiting shortfalls in 3 of 4 military branches in the US. The biggest factor was that the available pool of recruits are 75% ineligible for a variety of reasons, but the biggest factor is past/current drug use. The most common drug: cannabis. Even if someone has used it only once, even if they just tried it, they are ineligible for military service.
It seems pretty foolish, in the biggest recruitment shortfall in American history, to discount your largest possible pool of recruits just because they might’ve smoked a doobie once.
Even if someone has used it only once, even if they just tried it, they are ineligible for military service.
Well that’s just false. You’ll get denied if you pop hot on a drug test at MEPS, but they don’t tend to care if you’ve smoked in the past, except as a barometer for if you’ll smoke in the future. And, like almost everything else in the DoD, there’s a waiver form you can fill out for it too
Can confirm. I signed said waiver. I told them that yeah, I smoke weed, but if my job requires me to be clean, I’m clean. Except Adderall. They gave me 30 days to get clean, sent me to MEPS and made me a Nuke. Then nuke school wouldn’t let me leave and they made me an officer and an instructor.
I joined the Navy to see the world, ffs. I’d already seen South Carolina :/
I hope every employer that continues enforcing thc testing in the workplace collaspes. Many of them are already on the brink. I just want to have a normal life and still get to smoke weed sometimes. All I know is that I will continue working towards that goal until I succeed, deal with it.
She tested positive for heroin, not THC. If she was actually actually heroin, child protective services involvement would absolutely be warranted.
The issue here is the erroneous test and complete failure on the part of the hospital to confirm its results
Counterpoint: Walked my dogs past a Gradeschool (5-13yo) during the hustle and bustle of the first morning of class. Smacked in the face at 8:30am with the stench of weed.
Pillars of the community. No doubt.
I don’t understand how 13-year olds smoking weed is a counterpoint to the other comment…
Hack writing but yeah, this is possible and I’m surprised there isn’t a better test.
