Drug Testing Question....

[Electric Amish]

Awhile ago my work brought in a drug testing group to explain the basics about drug testing. During this seminar they were sure to point out that Marijuana can be detected for months after use.

A question popped into my head this morning and I was wondering if anyone here knew the answer.

When they perform these tests, do they look for a trace of the drugs or do they look for a quantifiable limit?

I just think it's kind of stupid if they find a trace of a drug that a person may have ingested weeks before and then punish the person. I don't see how that's fair. It's not like the person is working while intoxicated.

Anyone know if the labs perform this quantification to determine if the person is actually intoxicated?

 

[MrPickins]

There is a quanitfiable threshold for a positive id, IIRC.

Something like 50ppm for THC?

 

[DainBramaged]

I know that when I took my test, the lady who gave me the results said that there was a minute trace of marijuana in my piss. She said that assuming I was not a smoker, it would most likely be from people smoking around me.

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: MrPickins
There is a quanitfiable threshold for a positive id, IIRC.

Something like 50ppm for THC?

Does that limit indicate intoxication or just the detection of THC?

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/testing/testing.shtml

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish

Originally posted by: MrPickins
There is a quanitfiable threshold for a positive id, IIRC.

Something like 50ppm for THC?

Does that limit indicate intoxication or just the detection of THC?

A positive for THC is 50 nanograms per milliliter. Technically, since THC is considered a toxin, it would be true to say your body is "intoxicated." That doesn't mean you are feeling any effects, however.

 

[MrPickins]

Originally posted by: Garth

Originally posted by: Electric Amish

Originally posted by: MrPickins
There is a quanitfiable threshold for a positive id, IIRC.

Something like 50ppm for THC?

Does that limit indicate intoxication or just the detection of THC?

A positive for THC is 50 nanograms per milliliter. Technically, since THC is considered a toxin, it would be true to say your body is "intoxicated." That doesn't mean you are feeling any effects, however.

Yep, I looked around just now. Most test are 50ng/ml, but some government sites suggest no higher than 10ng/ml.

 

[Icanoutsmokeany1]

You are allowed to have a small amount as the are certain food items that contain very trace amounts of THC, such as collared greens, etc. If you've been getting high recently you will fail, bottom line.

As for THC being a toxin, by itself it's probably a very useful medicine, but the way we ingest it is completely unhealthy.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Originally posted by: MrPickins

Originally posted by: Garth

Originally posted by: Electric Amish

Originally posted by: MrPickins
There is a quanitfiable threshold for a positive id, IIRC.

Something like 50ppm for THC?

Does that limit indicate intoxication or just the detection of THC?

A positive for THC is 50 nanograms per milliliter. Technically, since THC is considered a toxin, it would be true to say your body is "intoxicated." That doesn't mean you are feeling any effects, however.

Yep, I looked around just now. Most test are 50ng/ml, but some government sites suggest no higher than 10ng/ml.

Well, there are two types of test that they can run on your urine: immunoassay and gas chromatograph / mass spectrometer. The detection limit for the GC/MS is 10ng/ml, but they usually only run those after a positive immunoassay test to confirm the results.

You can get an immunoassay test with the 50ng/ml sensitivity at most drug stores like CVS or Walgreens and test yourself.

 

[Electric Amish]

That just seems wrong, at least for a test based on cause.

Our random testing here at work is triggered if you have an accident. So, if you fail the test, regardless of the amount of drug found in your system, you are in trouble. I would have hoped they would have to prove intoxication.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
That just seems wrong, at least for a test based on cause.

I agree totally. THC is testable for such a long time because, unlike other drugs, THC is lipid-soluable, meaning it gets stored in your fat cells. The much "harder" synthetic drugs are only testable for around 96 hours. That's not to mention the fact that a person can get loaded up on psychedelic mushrooms at any time and they don't even test for it. I don't know if they can. There is a whole galaxy of intoxicating drugs that aren't tested for in usual corporate drug tests. Factory workers could be sniffing glue and permanent markers on the job, but they'd test clean.

 

[TraumaRN]

This hearkens back to the old eating poppy seeds will make a urine screen test positive for opiates. Hell Mythbusters did an episode on it! They found it can make you test positive, which could lead to some problems if your work doesn't attempt to differeniate between the two.

Our hospital lab screens for false positives usually. We tend to test for just the drug being in your system because well we wanna know what else might be going on. But it's difficult sometimes because sometimes they'll run a urine drug screen like 20-30 minutes after someone got a dose of a benzodiazepene(Ativan, Xanax etc.) or an opiate like morphine, and it will show up that fast in your urine.

It's a tricky and I think controversial thing all around. My friend when getting a job actually had to take a doctors note and script into her future employer because they required a urine drug screen and she takes Xanax.