aihfl
Bluelight Crew
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
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
