Can you challenge a urine drug screen for a false positive?!
Question: I was offered a job at a great company and I had to take a drug screen last week for them and the clinic laboratory called me today and told me that I tested positive for morphine, I was pretty shocked considering that I do not use morphine. I went to my physician today and he told me that it is possible to test positive for morphine and (or) heroin from eating poppyseed and I do eat bagels daily. I guess what my question is does anyone know if you can challenge a urine test? My doctor gave me a blood test today to see what his results were but I know that they won't accept his test because he is my personal Doctor. I am really freaking out right now because this is an awesome job opportunity and I really want this job!!!!!! I have family that retired from this company and then this lab is going to tell them that I tested positive for morphine!!! ugh The funny thing is I do take prescription painkillers and xanax but neither of them showed up! Any advise would be helpful!
Answers: I was offered a job at a great company and I had to take a drug screen last week for them and the clinic laboratory called me today and told me that I tested positive for morphine, I was pretty shocked considering that I do not use morphine. I went to my physician today and he told me that it is possible to test positive for morphine and (or) heroin from eating poppyseed and I do eat bagels daily. I guess what my question is does anyone know if you can challenge a urine test? My doctor gave me a blood test today to see what his results were but I know that they won't accept his test because he is my personal Doctor. I am really freaking out right now because this is an awesome job opportunity and I really want this job!!!!!! I have family that retired from this company and then this lab is going to tell them that I tested positive for morphine!!! ugh The funny thing is I do take prescription painkillers and xanax but neither of them showed up! Any advise would be helpful!
Yes, you can. Some prescription painkillers can register as morphine, but I'm guessing your doctor would have told you if that was the case and the company would have seen them listed and linked it to that. The poppyseed connection is a very real possibilty. Let the company know and ask for a retest or more accurate blood test.
In order to test for morphine due to poppy seeds, you'd need to eat about a full room full of poopy seeds, however while false positives are rare they can happen. See what the results for the blood test were..if you test positive..then somethings wrong or you are obviously taking morphine
WHETHER YOU CAN CHALLENGE THE RESULT DEPENDS ON THE COMPANIES POLICY. I SUGGEST CONTACTING THEM ASAP AND EXPLAIN THE SITUATION. THEY MAY RETEST YOU. SOME DRUGS REMAIN IN THE BLOOD STREAM FOR SEVERAL DAYS OR MORE. I DON'T KNOW IF MORPHINE DOES. STOP THE POPPY SEED CONTAINING FOODS TODAY. I AM SURE THEY ARE AWARE THAT POPPYSEED CAN CAUSE A FALSE POSITIVE RESULT.
Toxicology screens are extremely sophisticated nowadays. One will test positive for opiates (not heroin) if one consumes poppyseeds, true. But, you can bank on results being damn near precise and challenging the test probably wont change things unfortunately. I also hate to tell you that a company probably wont waste their time retesting you due to the number of other candidates for the position, as well as wondering about the initial results. Theres nothing you can do about it legally, so I would venture to say unless you could prove there was a mixup in the specimens, you need to look elsewhere for employment. I would also question any candidate for employment regarding his/her need to take prescription xanax and/or pain medications. And youre right about not taking results from your personal physician or any other physician for that matter. Companies today require their own MDs to perform physicals, procedures, testing, etc. , and use their own labs for testing. Sorry, but Im gonna say its quite doubtful that youll be hired.