Joined Army-Tested positive for Cocaine=BS

[Andrew111]

I'm 17 and I decided to sign up for the Army under the delayed entry program. I take all those tests, and I get a very good job because I scored fairly well in the ASVAB test, I got an 88 and the highest score you can get is a 99. I get a $1,000 bonus with the job, and it is the type of job I was aiming for too. The official title is Network Switch System Operator, I WOULD have been able to build and maintain computer networks for the Army, and the job provides excellent opportunities for advancement. It also has secret security clearance as well.

After I get through with all the testing at the facility, I go home all happy because I have an excellent future with this job. I go to my first delayed entry event and it was pretty fun....then a few days later I get a call from my recruiter. He says he has bad news and tells me I tested positive for cocaine in the urinalysis. I'm thinking he must be joking, but he said he wasn't. My jaw dropped because I haven't used a damn illegal drug ever in my life. Hell, I was friends with a guy since we were 7 years old, but when he started getting into drugs I wouldn't have any part of it. I swear I have never done drugs, but I test positive for cocaine.......This is utter BS to the extreme. Their goes my damn future.

I decide to search around on Google, and I find all these sites saying how easy it can be to test positive for illegal drugs you have never taken. I could barely take it, because I know damn well my test results weren't accurate and the Army refuses to let me take the test again. They said I was out, even though the urinalysis has been proved to be wrong before, I found several cases where people had their lives screwed over because of inaccurate results. And the funny thing is that once you test positive, you are out. You lose your test scores for ASVAB, and you lose your job. You have to wait a year to try getting back in. This is outrageous, has anyone else had this happen to them with these drug tests? I have to get a Congressional before the Army will even think of overturning my dismissal, I am steaming mad right now. I really needed to rant, and I want to know if anyone else here has had this happen to them. Also, any suggestions you may have on how to get these guys to let me back in. They say the only chance I got is to get a Congressional.

 

Sorry to hear that man. I don't know how you feel, but I hope something good comes outta this.

If you want to piss the army off, go into the navy.

 

[ThreeLeggedGnome]

Oh Well. Go to college instead and serve your country in another way. You scored high on that test im sure youre intelligent. Maybe, that's how things work themselves out sometimes. You may never know. Maybe the army wasn't right for you. I wouldn't be too upset you can always join the ROTC in most major universities if armforce is your thing. Best of luck.

 

[Atrail]

Call your local Congressman and make your case!

 

[XMan]

Originally posted by: Atrail
Call your local Congressman and make your case!

I would pay to have yourself tested for drugs first. If you've got a paper in hand from a reputable company saying you are clean, you will be able to make your case more easily.

 

[ThePresence]

Originally posted by: Atrail
Call your local Congressman and make your case!

Cant hurt to try!

 

[UltraQuiet]

deleted

 

[MadRat]

You're too smart for the Army anyhow. Besides that, you'd of been on the front lines with Iraq next spring...

 

Originally posted by: DaveSohmer

If you want to piss the army off, go into the navy

Don't bother. We want neither illegal drug users nor liars. Thank you.


Chief

Are you saying that you think this kid is lying and/or taking drugs, or that you people wouldn't bother to retest because the army already did?

 

[Viper GTS]

My dad got a false positive for meth after an on-job accident (he walked around a corner into bright sunlight & walked chest first into a steal beam that was sitting on a rack). They sent the sample to a higher-priced, more accurate lab & they said it wasn't meth it was OTC pseudophedrine hydrochloride - ie Sudafed.

Surely there must be SOME way to get the sample tested again.

...If you really want to be in the ARMY that bad.

Viper GTS

 

[Andrew111]

Originally posted by: DaveSohmer

If you want to piss the army off, go into the navy

Don't bother. We want neither illegal drug users nor liars. Thank you.


Chief

Is that supposed to be funny? Why would I lie on a forum, I'm posting for suggestions on what the hell to do. Do some searching on Google and you'll find others screwed over by drug tests that were inaccurate.

 

[charrison]

I heard the military take on cocaine testing a few weeks ago.

Cocaine is the one drug that does easily produce false positives. Urine is not checked for cocaine, but for a chemical that is created by you body while getting rid of it. If a sample triggers a positive it is immediatly retested. A very, very, very small fraction of false positive can be attributed to mishandling of the sample.

Apparently the military also has a low threshold for a sample to test positive. If someone slipped some into a drink, it would not be enough to get you noticbly high, but would enough to be positive.

The military has a zero tolerance for drug users and for good reason.

It is unfortunate if in fact you did get a false positive, but the rules are there for a reason.

 

[Atrail]

Is that supposed to be funny? Why would I lie on a forum, I'm posting for suggestions on what the hell to do. Do some searching on Google and you'll find others screwed over by drug tests that were inaccurate.

Well I got a good laugh out of it.
I am sure it was all in good humor.

 

[UltraQuiet]

Is that supposed to be funny? Why would I lie on a forum, I'm posting for suggestions on what the hell to do. Do some searching on Google and you'll find others screwed over by drug tests that were inaccurate.

No it's very serious. If I had a nickel for every guy that claimed he got screwed over on a drug test I could retire and never work again. The days of mishandling samples are over. Thing of the past. When you test positive they immediately remove your sample from the batch and test it six ways to Sunday. The odds of you getting a false positive, irregardless of what some malcontents website says, are so astronomical that I have absolutely no compunction at all about making the statement I did. As far as you lying on a forum people lie about everything on a forum, how much money they make, their cars, girlfriends, etc. I couldn't begin to understand why they lie or you.


Chief

 

[aphex]

** aphexII ducks and hides as the plot thickens...

 

[glenn1]

If a sample triggers a positive it is immediatly retested. A very, very, very small fraction of false positive can be attributed to mishandling of the sample.

I daresay infinitesimal. For the Army anyway, the way a urinanalysis is conducted, you get your ID checked and a bottle is prepared, serialized and cross-referenced in several ways. You then get escorted to the testing area, where an NCO or officer watches you. The bottle has to be visible at all times, if it's ever out of the observer's sight, the test is invalid. Once you've completed your sample, you walk back to the ID station (still under escort) where the bottle is sealed with special anti-tamper tape, and several control and identification tags placed on the bottle, all the with test control officer's and the test taker's signature and/or initials. Positive 100% physical control of all specimen bottles has to be maintained until delivery at the testing lab. Again, if the bottles are ever out of sight and physical control, the samples are deemed invalid. Any positive samples are immediately retested with more accurate tests.

You might not have realized it, but if you pissed "hot" in a military urinanalysis test, you HAVE been exposed to cocaine. That doesn't necessarily mean you're a user or abuser, but that's how things go i guess.

 

[Lucky]

deleted

 

[911paramedic]

You will never get the army to accept your explanation why your test came back positive, even if it was an error.

You can get a better test done by a good lab. Have them test your hair instead of urine, it will be accurate to as long as your hair is. What I mean is, your hair stores this information as long as it grows, the longer the hair, the longer the history.

 

[her209]

Has Bush been screwing around in the labs again?

 

[UltraQuiet]

I apologize to Andrew111 for calling him a liar.


It is possible that he had a false positive (inifitesimal) or the sample was mixed up. My comments on the veracity of the drug test however are accurate.

 

[Andrew111]

My recruiter informed me that Cocaine will only show up for 2-3 days after use. I knew I was going to go down to Des Moines, Iowa for the drug testing and to pick my job about a week in advance. I would not be stupid enough to take cocaine at that time, and I live in a small town, I would not know where to get it anyway. You have your opinion, but I know I haven't used Cocaine ever.

Right after taking that urinalysis, they asked me if my social security number was blah-blah-blah and it wasn't, so I'm thinking that they may have switched test samples with someone else by accident. You put a sticker with your social security number on the test sample, you are supposed to see them put it on.....I was not allowed to see the sticker to make sure it was my social security number. I did not know of this untill the recruiter talked to me about it after the test results were discovered.

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: Andrew111
My recruiter informed me that Cocaine will only show up for 2-3 days after use. I knew I was going to go down to Des Moines, Iowa for the drug testing and to pick my job about a week in advance. I would not be stupid enough to take cocaine at that time, and I live in a small town, I would not know where to get it anyway. You have your opinion, but I know I haven't used Cocaine ever.

Right after taking that urinalysis, they asked me if my social security number was blah-blah-blah and it wasn't, so I'm thinking that they may have switched test samples with someone else by accident. You put a sticker with your social security number on the test sample, you are supposed to see them put it on.....I was not allowed to see the sticker to make sure it was my social security number. I did not know of this untill the recruiter talked to me about it after the test results were discovered.

They read you the wrong SSN & you didn't object? When your piss was being labelled??

Viper GTS

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: Andrew111
My recruiter informed me that Cocaine will only show up for 2-3 days after use. I knew I was going to go down to Des Moines, Iowa for the drug testing and to pick my job about a week in advance. I would not be stupid enough to take cocaine at that time, and I live in a small town, I would not know where to get it anyway. You have your opinion, but I know I haven't used Cocaine ever.

Right after taking that urinalysis, they asked me if my social security number was blah-blah-blah and it wasn't, so I'm thinking that they may have switched test samples with someone else by accident. You put a sticker with your social security number on the test sample, you are supposed to see them put it on.....I was not allowed to see the sticker to make sure it was my social security number. I did not know of this untill the recruiter talked to me about it after the test results were discovered.

For scoring so high on the military entry test, you aint so bright. If you knew there was error, you should have made sure it got fixed.

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: MadRat
You're too smart for the Army anyhow. Besides that, you'd of been on the front lines with Iraq next spring...

That's pretty funny. I didn't know they started using Chairborne Rangers in Combat Arms.

 

[eLiTeGoodGuy]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS

Originally posted by: Andrew111
My recruiter informed me that Cocaine will only show up for 2-3 days after use. I knew I was going to go down to Des Moines, Iowa for the drug testing and to pick my job about a week in advance. I would not be stupid enough to take cocaine at that time, and I live in a small town, I would not know where to get it anyway. You have your opinion, but I know I haven't used Cocaine ever.

Right after taking that urinalysis, they asked me if my social security number was blah-blah-blah and it wasn't, so I'm thinking that they may have switched test samples with someone else by accident. You put a sticker with your social security number on the test sample, you are supposed to see them put it on.....I was not allowed to see the sticker to make sure it was my social security number. I did not know of this untill the recruiter talked to me about it after the test results were discovered.

They read you the wrong SSN & you didn't object? When your piss was being labelled??

Viper GTS

Don't forget they also make you sign the sticker once its on the bottle confirming that everything on the sticker is 100% correct. At least they do in the MEPS station in Beckley, WV.