Drugs Check Is Hazardous To Your Work

The results of drug testing can be invalid in certain cases. These drawbacks of drug testing can diminish your freedom and lose your work.

Cannabis Seed Foods

Laboratory studies revealed that cookies made from cannabis sativa seed (hemp seed, marijuana seed) can cause a positive urine drug screening for marijuana. Even though their strains are low, they can result a positive drug screening after ingestion. The positive cannabis/marijuana results were obtained for the volunteers who ate hemp cookies.

Numerous Errors

Errors can be made anywhere in the process of drug testing. The employees become the guinea pig used to develop testing that can be accurate. Problems of laboratories performance, faulty conformation, legal action and carelessness appear almost immediately in mass testing of  soldiery personnel's for drugs.

Human Error

Most of the human errors are caused due to bad organization, inadequate workers, faulty maintenance of equipment, contamination of glass wares with drug positive samples, etc. Monitoring of the quality work is done at the laboratories to make sure no errors are made. The machines are only as reliable as the people operate them.

Validity

The Centre for Disease Control has tested the laboratories sending known quantities of drugs. The laboratories were unable to detect the drugs present in the sample. Even though the laboratories were improved the methodology and reliability, still the trouble continues.

False Positives Or Opiates

The most difficult task for the ones who are interpreting urine drug testing results is the opiate positive. Majority of opiate positives are due to poppy seeds and prescription drugs. Studies reveal that certain drugs are found after poppy seed ingestion. As the false positives disrupted several employees' life, Govt. has amended mandatory guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs by increasing the cut-off and confirmatory levels of opiates.

The Two Croissant Breakfast

Sample urine tested positive for opiates by RIA, EMIT. GC/MS identified morphine content. The individual denied opiate abuse and an inquiry was done. Inquiry revealed a diet consisting of a Burger King hamburger the night before the specimen was taken and a breakfast apparently usual, of two croissantsfrom the university snack bar. Individual appeared to be quite normal. They came to the conclusion that the pulverization of few poppy seeds used as a decoration on the croissantresulted in positive immunoassay response.

False Positives

It refers to a positive result on a drug-free sample. False positives may occur due to testing methodology, equipment contamination, etc. There is a great personal and social significance in the positive drug test of work fitness evaluation, pre-employment, promotion candidates, etc. Usually testing is followed by a confirmatory drug test by using different methodology.

Regulation Needed

In a random or mass drug testing, without probable cause, error is inevitable.

Causes of Errors in Drug Testing:

• Improper lab procedures
• Inadvertent switching of samples
• Paperwork being missing or damages
• Passive inhalation
• Cross-reactivity with other, legal drugs
• Tampering with samples
• Other reasons

Cross-Reactivity

It was studied by Allen and Stiles. They tested 161 prescriptions and over the counter drugs with EMIT and found that 65 of the prescription and over the counter products showed some cross reactivity, including values above cut-off. Most of the positives required the concentrations that are not achievable in human urine and do not present practical problems. If you use a prescription or over the counter medicine before a drug test, you could test positive. About 150 officially permitted over the counter medications, especially those containing synthetic compounds like phenylpropanolamine have been reported as causing positives in amphetamine drug tests and can also cause a false positive in a Methedrine drug screen. Some sources claim that a cocaine EMIT test can yield a positive if the person being tested drank large quantities of tea or coffee. So, you should be smart, get informed, proactive and prepare to pass a drug tests.