Poppy seed bagel causes woman to test positive for opiates while delivering a baby

[aihfl]

Drug policy in the US is out of control. One of my cycling buddies was a police officer at a hospital for women and children and his job was specifically to take into custody mothers who tested positive for drugs, or whose newly delivered baby tested positive for drugs. He doesn't do that job anymore.

TOWSON, Md. A Maryland woman paid the price for her breakfast choice the day her daughter was born. "I was in labor. I was sitting in the bed. I was having contractions. I was on a Pitocin drip, and the doctor came in and said, 'You've tested positive for opiates,'" Elizabeth Eden said. Eden never imagined she would test positive for opiates when she delivered baby Beatrice last spring. She had heard in a school health class that consuming poppy seeds could cause a false positive, but that was certainly not on her mind when she gave birth at St. Joseph Medical Center on April 4.

"I said, 'Well, can you test me again? And I ate a poppy seed bagel this morning for breakfast,' and she said, 'No, you've been reported to the state,'" Eden said. Poppy seeds come from the opium poppy plant. The drug is made from the sap of that plant, but the seeds contain trace amounts of opiates. It doesn't take much to test positive for drugs after eating a poppy seed bagel. In fact, studies have shown that just a teaspoon of poppy seeds can cause your levels to be 1,200 nanograms per millimeter. A positive test at St. Joseph Medical Center is 300 nanograms per millimeter. Dr. Judith Rossiter-Pratt, chief of the department of OBGYN explains they use that as a means to catch as many true drug misusers as possible.

"What you can see on this graph is that if you set the bar here, you would only identify true positives, but you would but what you would also miss quite a few individuals who did use drugs and were considered screened negative," Rossiter-Pratt said.

Because of her breakfast choice, Eden's daughter had to stay in the hospital on hold for five days and mom was assigned a state caseworker for a home check-up. "It was traumatizing," Eden said.

In a detailed letter to St. Joseph's, Eden detailed her research on poppy seeds and raised her concerns in hopes the hospital would raise its threshold for a positive test, or at least warn expectant mothers. "We don't typically educate patients, and it's a really good point that people probably should know that if you use poppy seeds before you have a toxicology screen that it could result in a false positive test," Rossiter-Pratt said.

After realizing Eden's situation was a legitimate case of the poppy seed defense, her case worker closed the file, but it was an ordeal she hopes no other mom must go through.

https://www.wtae.com/article/poppy-...ive-for-opiates-when-delivering-baby/22662464

 

[LucidSDreamr]

Drug policy in the US is out of control. One of my cycling buddies was a police officer at a hospital for women and children and his job was specifically to take into custody mothers who tested positive for drugs, or whose newly delivered baby tested positive for drugs. He doesn't do that job anymore.

TOWSON, Md. A Maryland woman paid the price for her breakfast choice the day her daughter was born. "I was in labor. I was sitting in the bed. I was having contractions. I was on a Pitocin drip, and the doctor came in and said, 'You've tested positive for opiates,'" Elizabeth Eden said. Eden never imagined she would test positive for opiates when she delivered baby Beatrice last spring. She had heard in a school health class that consuming poppy seeds could cause a false positive, but that was certainly not on her mind when she gave birth at St. Joseph Medical Center on April 4.

"I said, 'Well, can you test me again? And I ate a poppy seed bagel this morning for breakfast,' and she said, 'No, you've been reported to the state,'" Eden said. Poppy seeds come from the opium poppy plant. The drug is made from the sap of that plant, but the seeds contain trace amounts of opiates. It doesn't take much to test positive for drugs after eating a poppy seed bagel. In fact, studies have shown that just a teaspoon of poppy seeds can cause your levels to be 1,200 nanograms per millimeter. A positive test at St. Joseph Medical Center is 300 nanograms per millimeter. Dr. Judith Rossiter-Pratt, chief of the department of OBGYN explains they use that as a means to catch as many true drug misusers as possible.

"What you can see on this graph is that if you set the bar here, you would only identify true positives, but you would but what you would also miss quite a few individuals who did use drugs and were considered screened negative," Rossiter-Pratt said.

Because of her breakfast choice, Eden's daughter had to stay in the hospital on hold for five days and mom was assigned a state caseworker for a home check-up. "It was traumatizing," Eden said.

In a detailed letter to St. Joseph's, Eden detailed her research on poppy seeds and raised her concerns in hopes the hospital would raise its threshold for a positive test, or at least warn expectant mothers. "We don't typically educate patients, and it's a really good point that people probably should know that if you use poppy seeds before you have a toxicology screen that it could result in a false positive test," Rossiter-Pratt said.

After realizing Eden's situation was a legitimate case of the poppy seed defense, her case worker closed the file, but it was an ordeal she hopes no other mom must go through.

https://www.wtae.com/article/poppy-...ive-for-opiates-when-delivering-baby/22662464

there is not such unit in medicine for drug test results as "nanogram per millimeter" Its "nanogram per milliLITER" Also 1,200 ng/mL is very high result. People taking high doses of oxy etc. have a result in this range. There is no way whatsoever that eating a bagel has enough opioid to even show up. Someone has watched too much Seinfeld.

The cutoff they use is 300 it said in the article. I wouldn't expect eating an entire bottle of seeds to even register 1 ng/mL based on what I've read about their opioid content.

Once again journalists lying to the public about shit they have no clue.

 

[S.J.B.]

Also 1,200 ng/mL is very high result. People taking high doses of oxy etc. have a result in this range. There is no way whatsoever that eating a bagel has enough opioid to even show up. Someone has watched too much Seinfeld.

The cutoff they use is 300 it said in the article. I wouldn't expect eating an entire bottle of seeds to even register 1 ng/mL based on what I've read about their opioid content.

Once again journalists lying to the public about shit they have no clue.

There have been quite a few studies done on this topic and it is well-documented that eating poppy-seed-containing foods can lead to urine morphine concentrations of above 300 ng/mL (from consumption of as little as one bagel) and sometimes even above 1 mg/mL. The federal government did not change its recommended threshold for workplace drug testing from 300 ng/mL to 2 mg/mL for no reason.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

maybe people that have never experienced chronic pain would do something that stupid. No way years of pain are worth a high.

 

[JessFR]

There have been quite a few studies done on this topic and it is well-documented that eating poppy-seed-containing foods can lead to urine morphine concentrations of above 300 ng/mL (from consumption of as little as one bagel) and sometimes even above 1 mg/mL. The federal government did not change its recommended threshold for workplace drug testing from 300 ng/mL to 2 mg/mL for no reason.

Indeed. It is absolutely a well documented fact that an ordinary poppy seed bagel can trigger a false positive on some drug tests. Especially the cheap, crappy immunoassay tests. A GCMS is a lot better, but whatever you use you gotta actually pay attention to the concentrations.

It's so frustrating that people STILL don't know this.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

There have been quite a few studies done on this topic and it is well-documented that eating poppy-seed-containing foods can lead to urine morphine concentrations of above 300 ng/mL (from consumption of as little as one bagel) and sometimes even above 1 mg/mL. The federal government did not change its recommended threshold for workplace drug testing from 300 ng/mL to 2 mg/mL for no reason.

https://academic.oup.com/jat/article-abstract/14/5/308/822329

i stand corrected. 2 g worth of seeds ingested in 260ish volunteers resulted in 16 ppl testing above 300.

although 2 g seems like a lot to get onto a bagel