Question about drug testing....
January 17, 2006 8:10 PM Subscribe
Is "complete urinalysis" a euphemism for "drug test"?
I'm going for a physical tomorrow for a teaching job I'm going to be taking in a few months. The forms say I need to have a "complete urinalysis". So, I have a two-part question.
1. Is this a drug test? 2. I do NOT do any drugs; however, my roommates do and I'm often in the room while they are smoking pot. Should I be worried about testing positive for drugs?
1. Is this a drug test? 2. I do NOT do any drugs; however, my roommates do and I'm often in the room while they are smoking pot. Should I be worried about testing positive for drugs?
You *can* test positive if you're around smokers. There was a Winter Olympics dust up 4-8 years ago with a snowboarder claiming a false positive because of this situation.
posted by unixrat at 8:50 PM on January 17, 2006
posted by unixrat at 8:50 PM on January 17, 2006
1. a "complete urinalysis" doesn't include a drug test if they mean CPT 81000 (the usual). They'll look at the color/clarity, test certain properties (specific gravity, pH, protein, ketones, glucose, etc...), and undergoes microscopic evaluation (hence making it "complete"). complete UAs are pretty standard; drug tests are not.
2. I dunno about this part. stay away from poppyseed bagels, though.
posted by neda at 8:59 PM on January 17, 2006
2. I dunno about this part. stay away from poppyseed bagels, though.
posted by neda at 8:59 PM on January 17, 2006
Complete urinalysis? They're having you get a physical as well? Normally, I'd think that if an employer wants to look at your pee, they're looking for drugs, but this sounds a little different. And a complete urinalysis is a bit excessive if they're just screening for drug use. Links on urinalysis: 1, 2, 3.
That said, I'd go by the assumption that yes, your prospective employer is testing for drugs. I understand that second-hand smoke can leave traces for a day or two, but generally not enough to trigger a positive.
Good luck.
posted by moira at 9:14 PM on January 17, 2006
That said, I'd go by the assumption that yes, your prospective employer is testing for drugs. I understand that second-hand smoke can leave traces for a day or two, but generally not enough to trigger a positive.
Good luck.
posted by moira at 9:14 PM on January 17, 2006
If you're really concerned, drink extra water the night before and don't make it the first pee of the day. I'd be real surprised if there's a problem, though.
posted by I Love Tacos at 10:23 PM on January 17, 2006
posted by I Love Tacos at 10:23 PM on January 17, 2006
unixrat: that's implying that the snowboarder was not, himself, a pot smoker. I think it's much more likely that he *was* actually a smoker, and just trying to avoid getting his gold medal (or whichever one it was, but I think it was gold) taken away.
posted by antifuse at 1:57 AM on January 18, 2006
posted by antifuse at 1:57 AM on January 18, 2006
it is not impossible to test positive through prolonged second hand smoked.
if you drink lots of water before the test, it will be noted, and you will be tested again.
i hope you're not another innocent victim of the drug war ...
posted by paradroid at 5:39 AM on January 18, 2006
if you drink lots of water before the test, it will be noted, and you will be tested again.
i hope you're not another innocent victim of the drug war ...
posted by paradroid at 5:39 AM on January 18, 2006
Don't take any cold/sinus meds either--some of these can result in a false positive for amphetamines.
posted by availablelight at 6:23 AM on January 18, 2006
posted by availablelight at 6:23 AM on January 18, 2006
NO! Second-hand marijuana smoke will not trigger a false-positive on a urinalysis.
Will. Not.
If you test positive, you smoked. For what it's worth: "THC and PCP in particular are stored by the system in the fatty lipid tissue and are gradually released into the blood stream until cleared. For chronic users with a high body fat count, this process can take several weeks."
Drinking water will not help, unless you drink enough to render the urinalysis invalid. (That's a lot of water.) Yes, "I have a friend who--" Everyone does. And everyone knows someone who worked in the hospital the night Richard Gere checked in.
posted by rentalkarma at 6:58 AM on January 18, 2006
Will. Not.
If you test positive, you smoked. For what it's worth: "THC and PCP in particular are stored by the system in the fatty lipid tissue and are gradually released into the blood stream until cleared. For chronic users with a high body fat count, this process can take several weeks."
Drinking water will not help, unless you drink enough to render the urinalysis invalid. (That's a lot of water.) Yes, "I have a friend who--" Everyone does. And everyone knows someone who worked in the hospital the night Richard Gere checked in.
posted by rentalkarma at 6:58 AM on January 18, 2006
Second don't drink too much water/grapefruit juice/anything else to clean yourself out.
Had an ex-boyfriend who found out he had to take a drug test and suddenly started injesting MASSIVE amounts of water and grapefruit juice. He swore he hadn't smoked in a while, but was just wanting to "be healthy" (suuure).
This behavior itself caused him to fail the test 3 times, which ended up causing him not to get this job. They checked for creatinine levels (scroll down to 5.3), which apparently are lost or lowered when you overhydrate. They never found drugs in his system, but his attempt to clean himself out was enough to not get him hired. The sad thing is that drinking water or grapefruit juice wouldn't have had any actual effect anyways. The sadder thing is that the job was at his father's company, and everyone was pretty humiliated.
posted by FortyT-wo at 7:09 AM on January 18, 2006
Had an ex-boyfriend who found out he had to take a drug test and suddenly started injesting MASSIVE amounts of water and grapefruit juice. He swore he hadn't smoked in a while, but was just wanting to "be healthy" (suuure).
This behavior itself caused him to fail the test 3 times, which ended up causing him not to get this job. They checked for creatinine levels (scroll down to 5.3), which apparently are lost or lowered when you overhydrate. They never found drugs in his system, but his attempt to clean himself out was enough to not get him hired. The sad thing is that drinking water or grapefruit juice wouldn't have had any actual effect anyways. The sadder thing is that the job was at his father's company, and everyone was pretty humiliated.
posted by FortyT-wo at 7:09 AM on January 18, 2006
Oops, WOULD NOT drink beforehand, as all the drug tests I had included alcohol and I'm glad I didn't get tanked the night before.
posted by geoff. at 7:31 AM on January 18, 2006
posted by geoff. at 7:31 AM on January 18, 2006
You have a right to know exactly what they will be testing for. Indeed, you'll have to sign a waiver to release the results of the test to your prospective employer, and if that waiver is to carry any legal weight whatsoever they'll list exactly what information they're looking for right on it.
So you could just, you know, ask.
posted by ChasFile at 9:10 AM on January 18, 2006
So you could just, you know, ask.
posted by ChasFile at 9:10 AM on January 18, 2006
ChasFile, from my pervious experience the waiver didn't happen until I pretty much had my dick in one hand a urine sample in the other hand.
posted by geoff. at 1:58 PM on January 18, 2006
posted by geoff. at 1:58 PM on January 18, 2006
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posted by geoff. at 8:33 PM on January 17, 2006