Positive

September 20, 2007 12:18 AM

Positive urinalysis test, in the Navy, what now? I don't use drugs, anyone gone through this, know someone who has.

It was positive, (120ng) for THC. I haven't used any drugs, and have come to understand that two possibilities are likely: A false positive, caused by Motrin (Ibuprofen) which I was taking, or, accidental ingestion, I.E. spending time in clubs, concerts.
I've requested a lawyer, had one meeting, but didn't come up with much.
NJP or court martial, JAG lawyer or civilian, basically, what are my chances here? any ideas, advice or stories would be great. Thanks. Oh yeh, and I live in Japan.

posted by nintendo to Work & Money (9 answers total)

retest. your hair can vindicate you, because it's a record of drug use over time, about half an inch/month.
posted by bruce at 12:28 AM on September 20, 2007 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Unwilling, or mistaken ingestion is common from what I understand. E.g. the guy standing behind you at a Rush concerts lights up a joint.

retest. your hair can vindicate you, because it's a record of drug use over time, about half an inch/month.

bruce, do you know if the Navy Has to do this, it seems that if they are not required to retest the prefer not to. I've never heard about any requirement to retest. ???

Thanks
posted by nintendo at 12:54 AM on September 20, 2007

Unless you've prepared each of your meals yourself and confirmed the origins of each ingredient, who's to say it wasn't slipped into something you ate?

Given the long metabolic half life of THC, it seems like a great way to commit career assassination would be to slip a pat of marijuana butter in a colleague's dinner.
posted by mullingitover at 2:08 AM on September 20, 2007

I know I just read an article in a military paper on this, but I can't figure out exactly when or which one. Within the last two months, and probably either the Eielson AFB paper or the Air Force times. IIRC, the article said that false positives do happen, to talk to your lawyer and maintain your innocence, and that it was a rough road because there's a systemic need to believe in the infallibility of the drug tests even false positives and negatives happen regularly.
posted by Cricket at 3:27 AM on September 20, 2007

How would you accidentally ingest marijuana at a club?

I have certainly attended music concerts where I've involuntarily ingested the cannabis that was being smoked all around me.

So seconding bruce and the hair test I guess.
posted by southof40 at 3:34 AM on September 20, 2007

Response by poster: Someone just emailed me this comment, I thought it was a good one. Thanks so far everyone.

Hi, someone who reads Metafilter here and using my anonymous e-mail
because I don't associate myself in a Googleable way with my pot-
smoking.

I don't have much of direct help, but I'd like to let you know that
if you do research you'll find that the accidental ingestion was
pretty unlikely especially if you never got high.

The long lifetime of THC metabolites in the body is for people who
are chronic. Smoke every day for a month, you're liable to fail the
test for 3 weeks+ after you stop. If you smoke on just 1 isolated
instance (or inhaled some second-hand) you tend to be clean in 2-3
days. I can provide the anecdote of a girl I know who got clean for
over a month for a drug test, had the test delayed, and with the
testing kits she had to be sure she was clean (which work the same
as the first stage of the standard lab test) did a little
experiment: got quite baked one night after the month+ clean, and
passed the test 3 days after.

I don't have time to dig them up right now, but studies I've found
about the efficacy of drug tests have indicated that for an
isolated use the detection time tends to be 2-3 days. That's for
people who actually smoked themselves and got high, and you have to
consider that it's hard to get high off second hand without doing
it on purpose.

To summarize, if you haven't been high, you probably never had
enough actual pot in you to fail the test for more than a very
short length of time, barring something weird like someone slipping
below-active doses of pot butter into your food every day for a
long period of time.

One practical thing - given that you quote 120 ng, they probably
did this and I believe it should be standard practice, but it's
possible that the 120 ng was a (rather high) cutoff and not your
quantitative level: Make sure they performed a gas chromatograph
(GC) test as verification on the first stage test. The GC test has
some degree of accuracy while the first stage test they do involves
50cents of chemicals in something similar to a home pregnancy test.

Feel free to post this answer, I'm just staying anonymous. Welcome
to the war on drugs!


posted by nintendo at 4:52 AM on September 20, 2007

Happened to me at a corporate civilian job (large chain department store). I tested positive for opiates and THC, and corporate policy stated that I had to attend an approved drug treatment program at my own expense. I refused, and doggedly maintained my innocence, and after about a week, the regional manager agreed to let me be re-tested. I passed perfectly- not even the tiniest trace of anything that had showed up on the original test. Obviously, the samples were switched, or the paperwork was effed up somewhere. If you're being honest about your non-drug use, then that's probably what happened to you. Unfortunately, you're up against the military here. You might be out of luck, but if you have very much invested in your military career, the very best thing you can do now is try to find a lawyer. You and your lawyer should do everything in your power to avoid a dishonorable discharge. A friend got one from the Marines for stupid reasons and 20 years later it still haunts him when he tries to find work, etc.

Also, ignore complience. What a jerk.
posted by cilantro at 6:49 AM on September 20, 2007

This one is for a lawyer. Find one you want and are comfortable with. I'm always up for a free trip to Japan ;)

Seriously, I've done these cases before. DoD, at least for its civilian employees follows the Department of Defense guidelines. That means a split sample, just like Tour de France racer Floyd Landis had. Basically, there should be two samples and each should be tested separately.

I'd look to lab error, personally. If you've never taken drugs, clerical error might be the problem, either with the handling of the samples or the paperwork.

I am not your lawyer and this is not legal advice.
posted by Ironmouth at 6:57 AM on September 20, 2007

Drug Policy Alliance is a resource I would use. Here is their page on drug testing. There are also discussion boards where people discuss problems with false positives.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 8:50 AM on September 20, 2007