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False Positive Drug Test

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concernedgrammy

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana

My daughter and her ex were required to take hair follicle drug testing.
Hers showed positive for cocaine. She does not do cocaine but, she is taking adderall. Although the test proved positive for cocaine, it did not show positive for any adderall. I simply do not understand this. Could this be a false positive caused by the medication? What should she do? This could have a dire impact on the custody of their daughter.

Thanks In Advance.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
 


LdiJ

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana

My daughter and her ex were required to take hair follicle drug testing.
Hers showed positive for cocaine. She does not do cocaine but, she is taking adderall. Although the test proved positive for cocaine, it did not show positive for any adderall. I simply do not understand this. Could this be a false positive caused by the medication? What should she do? This could have a dire impact on the custody of their daughter.

Thanks In Advance.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Your daughter should get a private test done and ask the courts to officially test her again...two more tests. False positives are possible and errors are possible. However, like someone else said, its quite possible that there is something you don't know as well.
 

TheGeekess

Keeper of the Kraken
When you take a drug test they ask all medications you are taking so that they can evaluate that. Im guessing she did tell them.
They didn't ask me about my meds the last time I took a (pre-employment) drug test.... In fact, they refused to talk to me about said meds. :cool:
 

concernedgrammy

Junior Member
Replies to my question

She did tell them that she was taking adderall. I just wanted to know if this particular medication could result in a false positive.
Yes, there could be something I don't know about but, you can bet I will get to the bottom of this without mwarren1980's self righteous remarks. Thanks.
I went to MedMD and they suggested she contact an attorney. She plans on doing that so, I have to believe at this point she is innocent.
Thanks for the advice regarding a private test, excellent idea!
 

Proserpina

Senior Member
She did tell them that she was taking adderall. I just wanted to know if this particular medication could result in a false positive.
Yes, there could be something I don't know about but, you can bet I will get to the bottom of this without mwarren1980's self righteous remarks. Thanks.
I went to MedMD and they suggested she contact an attorney. She plans on doing that so, I have to believe at this point she is innocent.
Thanks for the advice regarding a private test, excellent idea!
Mwarren is pretty much on the ball on this one. Yes, false positives are possible with hair follicle testing....but not likely. There was nothing self-righteous in mwarren's post - it was simply telling the truth.

As someone else mentioned earlier the vast majority of labs these days use a two-tier method of testing - the first is the common screening test we're all familiar with. These are the ones with the higher and more frequent false positives. If the sample is positive that's when the confirmation test is done using mass spectrometry. It's infinitely more precise (and quite a bit more expensive too but that's not the point). And what follows is the part that isn't going to go down well when I hit "post".

The general consensus is that false positive samples from the screening test will - in virtually every case - be negative on the confirmation test. Urine tests are obviously more likely to give a false positive but even they will generally not test positive in the confirmation test; once we get down to hair follicle testing it is even less likely that a clean sample will give a false positive twice (I'm not a gambling woman, but think of the odds).

(if anyone is interested there's a good reason for this - since hair grows at a rate of about 1/2 an inch per month - and about an inch and a half is needed for testing - cocaine would generally needed to have been used at least 3 times within a 3-month time frame for a positive confirmation result. )

OP, by all means have another test performed. But please also bear in mind that though it's not impossible, a false positive hair follicle confirmation test is extremely unlikely. And if the second round of testing is positive? Unfortunately that speaks for itself.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
Mwarren is pretty much on the ball on this one. Yes, false positives are possible with hair follicle testing....but not likely. There was nothing self-righteous in mwarren's post - it was simply telling the truth.

As someone else mentioned earlier the vast majority of labs these days use a two-tier method of testing - the first is the common screening test we're all familiar with. These are the ones with the higher and more frequent false positives. If the sample is positive that's when the confirmation test is done using mass spectrometry. It's infinitely more precise (and quite a bit more expensive too but that's not the point). And what follows is the part that isn't going to go down well when I hit "post".

The general consensus is that false positive samples from the screening test will - in virtually every case - be negative on the confirmation test. Urine tests are obviously more likely to give a false positive but even they will generally not test positive in the confirmation test; once we get down to hair follicle testing it is even less likely that a clean sample will give a false positive twice (I'm not a gambling woman, but think of the odds).

(if anyone is interested there's a good reason for this - since hair grows at a rate of about 1/2 an inch per month - and about an inch and a half is needed for testing - cocaine would generally needed to have been used at least 3 times within a 3-month time frame for a positive confirmation result. )

OP, by all means have another test performed. But please also bear in mind that though it's not impossible, a false positive hair follicle confirmation test is extremely unlikely. And if the second round of testing is positive? Unfortunately that speaks for itself.
My bigger concern than a false positive, would be a mishandling or contamination error. Unfortunately, from what I have been reading that happens far more frequently than we should be comfortable with. That is why I am an advocate of both a private test and a second test through the courts.
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
Truthfully mom FALSE positives are not as prevalent as most people think. I have had clients state the test has to be wrong and the reasons given are:

I never took that drug -- it must have been spiked into my dope.
I don't do illegal drugs -- though I did try it once a few weeks ago when I got stressed but that doesn't count.
I would never do drugs with my children around and they were with me that weekend after spending the summer with their (insert relation here).

People LIE. Clients lie. Clients deny to their families. Clients deny to their attorneys until they need their attorney to perform miracles and try to bail their butt out and save them. It happens.

Mom I would certain that you do NOT know EVERYTHING your daughter does. She may say adderall and yet do coke on weekends, or tried it once, or it was spiked into her pot.
 

Isis1

Senior Member
Truthfully mom FALSE positives are not as prevalent as most people think. I have had clients state the test has to be wrong and the reasons given are:

I never took that drug -- it must have been spiked into my dope.
I don't do illegal drugs -- though I did try it once a few weeks ago when I got stressed but that doesn't count.
I would never do drugs with my children around and they were with me that weekend after spending the summer with their (insert relation here).

People LIE. Clients lie. Clients deny to their families. Clients deny to their attorneys until they need their attorney to perform miracles and try to bail their butt out and save them. It happens.

Mom I would certain that you do NOT know EVERYTHING your daughter does. She may say adderall and yet do coke on weekends, or tried it once, or it was spiked into her pot.

i need a papertowel. and a mop...i can't believe someone would actually say that.
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
Your daughter should get a private test done and ask the courts to officially test her again...two more tests. False positives are possible and errors are possible. However, like someone else said, its quite possible that there is something you don't know as well.
Are you aware of the COST of a hair follicle test?
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
The daughter would find a way to make it happen.

I would tell the daughter about getting another done and see how she comes up with the cost. I wouldn't be handing my money over so easily for her.
Whether or not a parent chooses to do that depends on the relationship they have with their child and the level of trust between them. Three years ago I probably would not have done it for my daughter...today, I absolutely would.
 

concernedgrammy

Junior Member
apology to mwarren1980

Sorry I got on your case. I just figured out that your comments re: babies before marriage,etc. is actually under your profile? I took it personally as though you were referring to my daughter. Please accept my apology. Thanks to all who have given me much to think about.
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
If you can tell us, what was the end result of that whole exchange?
It was me looking at my client and stating: DUDE you really need to comprehend the idea that you are NOT supposed to be on ANY ILLEGAL drugs so the judge is not going to be impressed with your reasoning.

My client shut up at that point -- the client "forgot" that pot is not legal.

ETA: The point of the drug test in that case was to make sure the client was clean and it didn't matter what was tested positive because the penalty would have been the same.
 
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