“They had a singular piece of evidence that I had taken something, and it was wrong.”
Susan Horton had been a stay-at-home mom for almost 20 years, and now—pregnant with her fifth child—she felt a hard-won confidence in herself as a mother.
Then she ate a salad from Costco.
Horton didn’t realize that she would be drug-tested before her child’s birth. Or that the poppy seeds in her salad could trigger a positive result on a urine drug screen, the quick test that hospitals often use to check pregnant patients for illicit drugs. Many common foods and medications—from antacids to blood pressure and cold medicines—can prompt erroneous results.
If Horton had been tested under different circumstances—for example, if she was a government employee and required to be tested as part of her job—she would have been entitled to a more advanced test and to a review from a specially trained doctor to confirm the initial result.
And let me guess, she paid for the privilege of being forced to stay 5 days and having her baby taken away from her? Unless she’s got amazing insurance?
Honestly, I’m so glad to live somewhere with public health care.
I'm sorry but anyone who thinks people with thc in their urine are less valuable than people that don't, is a worthless piece of human trash themselves. It's appalling that this is even a thing but more so how many people actually support it staying the way it is.
For decades, state and federal laws have required hospitals across the country to identify newborns affected by drugs in the womb and to refer such cases to child protective services for possible investigation. To comply, hospitals often use urine drug screens that are inexpensive (as little as $10 per test), simple to administer (the patient pees in a cup), and provide results within minutes.
I am the owner of a penis and without children, so this doesn't quite apply to me as seriously, but I had a false positive used against me in my disability case (which I ultimately lost after 7 years after the judge was like "This person hasn't worked in years, not my problem. Denied. Final."). I was put on a psych hold and happened to have been getting over a cold and had been using Mucinex D. I got flagged for amphetamines. I told the nurse I had been taking that. She apparently neglected to take note of that and the judge brought it up during a hearing. I was livid after that, so I cannot imagine how this mother feels. Holy fucking shit. Testing and the people administering the tests need to be and do better. Use your fucking judgment.
Back when I had a job that required regular drug testing we WERE told to not eat poppy seeds. But my understanding is that, unless you have other digestive issues (not sure if a baby would count?), it is incredibly unlikely to test positive unless you are mainlining poppy seeds for weeks on end. Its similar to how getting a whiff of something dank isn't going to make you test positive but you should still avoid those scenarios.
The issue is that if you pissed hot you would immediately need a much more expensive (since you need a proper professional rather than someone who signed a form saying they won't pleasure themselves while watching you pee...) blood test. And, in the case of contractors, they would then need to deal with the union reps who would fight tooth and nail to ensure that blood test never happens and it is just a headache for everyone. And you can bet those reps always insisted people had just eaten a single poppy seed muffin. Same with the Super Important Parents of the nepo babies.
But yeah. It is fricking wild that it is immediate action without follow up. Especially when someone is going to be in the hospital for at least a day or two anyway.