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RT&DC Moderators: Senior Staff
Alcohol and urine test?
- Thread starter Crissco
- Start date
Jabberwocky
Frumious Bandersnatch
No. Alcohol has such a short half life it is only detectable in urine for 8-12 hours. I would wait 24 hours just to be safe if you are being tested by law enforcement.
Most urine tests don't even bother to check for alcohol, usually only law enforcement or courts do.
Most urine tests don't even bother to check for alcohol, usually only law enforcement or courts do.
Last edited by a moderator:
The urine tests for alcohol are:
- Ethanol urine test: This test measures the ethanol (alcohol) in urine. Because ethanol is eliminated through the body quickly, these tests can detect very recent use only.
- Ethyl glucuronide (EtG) urine test: EtG is an alcohol metabolite. Although EtG tests usually have a detection window of about 24 to 72 hours, the metabolite may be detected for up to 80 hours after alcohol use, especially with heavy drinking.
- Ethyl sulfate (EtS) urine test: EtS is another metabolite. EtS urine tests usually guarantee accuracy only in the first 24 hours. But much like EtG, EtS can be detected in urine about 80 hours after heavy alcohol use.
leeching4ever_1st_posting
Greenlighter
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2024
- Messages
- 1
After coming to BL over several years to find answers to "this" or "that", I got as far as the top return (this one) which intrigued me enough to create an ID to maybe get clarification on something that I didn't even know that I wanted to know until now. Having only 'skimmed' the posting rules and knowing that my one word search doesn't appear on this page, I'll leave that out of this post.
Am I correct to assume that the EtG and/or the EtS information could/would be derived from the same sample that is also being used to detect the presence of other metabolites, e.g., opiates, cocaine, and benzos? If so, I'm not necessarily asking about THC or any other substances, as the three that I listed are the only ones that would affect me. That said, I understand that a future reader may enjoy a list as long as your arm.
-- That's the TLDR. Below is the narrative that explains why recent events caused me to pause at this post.
Note: My vagueness regarding more precise spaces of time is purely paranoia (in the broad sense, not clinical.) Although I may be that, it doesn't mean they aren't after me.
For around a decade, I have been lucky enough to be being treated by the same pain management provider. I had spent the few or so previous years seeing 6 or 8 different other providers. Some couldn't figure it out, or more commonly, I am sure, some KNEW that I was just looking for "cool drugs". Who knew that the next clown I would see would not only come to believe me, but was interested in figuring out the why and how to fix it. More importantly, they (one person) had no intention of watching me suffer more than necessary during that mission. I know many of you understand what it's like to have a provider who takes you seriously and puts in the actual work. Probably, many more have not. For that, I am empathic to you, stranger. Almost since our beginning, I've been under a "pain management contract." In the early months/first years, probably, my "randoms" were quite regular. To be clear, always at a scheduled appointment, never a random call to some in for a screening or pill count. In fact, never a pill count until recently. After the first couple of years, when I would show up for an appointment, my first question to the person at check-in "do you need a sample before I go use the restroom", was getting answered with "nope" so many times that once I remarked that I hadn't been asked for many months. I gave exactly two during that year. Fast-forward to earlier this year and the answer to my usual question was "yep, you're on the list." No problem as it was never one for me, well, in my mind it shouldn't have been as I was the only one in the building who knew what I knew. An almost life-long buddy, from whom I have been physically separated from for close to 30 years, came to my town for a week. Neither once of us had even so much as seen coke for 25 or so years, but boys will be boys. Our kids are adults and living their own adult lives. A few hours of drinking and laughing and catching up led to "Really?" I know a guy who knows a guy and after five repeat days later, it was time to make sure that his last couple of days back here were us being grown-ups again. When I count the days from when we had our last night of drinking and snorting, there were 8 full calendar days until I had a scheduled appointment on the following day. I didn't go into it thinking, "I can't do this past Xday," but when "oh shit" hit me. My next thought was that there were more than "3-5 days", but even almost 9 before I MIGHT have to provide a sample. Even with that knowledge, it wasn't until I left there to go pick up my pain meds, that I really was able to relax. FF a little over a week and I got a call out of the blue that I needed to show up by end of business to give a sample and to bring my meds. "Uhh, OK. What's going on?" Well, reader, I have already spelled that out for you. My first pill count went off without a hitch, as did that day's sample. I've since read that 3–5 days is nothing to hang your hat on. Metabolism, body fat, yadda, yadda. I did learn that there was not a lab in house at that building at the time. I got the reminder of the truth regarding that years-old adage that talks about "..... but if you F<{# just one goat" holds true. My samples have yet to become "random" again. They are every, single time. (Still just that one pill count.) I haven't been "fired" as a patient, and I know it takes time to rebuild trust. In closing (really, who even is still reading) I had never before been asked about my alcohol intake (aside from the assessment which I'm told was part of.) Last visit it was brought up. I assured them I have never once decided to have a cocktail on my way in to an appointment. This is when I learned of metabolites left behind from drinking. I was "reminded" that as part of the contract, I said I wouldn't drink. My response was that I'd take them at their word that it's in there, but as far as I was concerned, this was the first I was hearing about it. I said that I was aware that mixing the pain meds with alcohol could result in me not waking up and that surely if they could see how much alcohol (roughly) I had consumed on the day previously, they should be able to figure out that I wasn't mixing. Their answer was, "I may have verbally told you that you could imbibe, but not to mix the two." I reassured them that I don't have a death wish and I would continue to never mix them. It got left at that. That's when I learned that I don't have to be under any influence of alcohol for them to know if I had a drink the day before.
The More You Know
Am I correct to assume that the EtG and/or the EtS information could/would be derived from the same sample that is also being used to detect the presence of other metabolites, e.g., opiates, cocaine, and benzos? If so, I'm not necessarily asking about THC or any other substances, as the three that I listed are the only ones that would affect me. That said, I understand that a future reader may enjoy a list as long as your arm.
-- That's the TLDR. Below is the narrative that explains why recent events caused me to pause at this post.
Note: My vagueness regarding more precise spaces of time is purely paranoia (in the broad sense, not clinical.) Although I may be that, it doesn't mean they aren't after me.
For around a decade, I have been lucky enough to be being treated by the same pain management provider. I had spent the few or so previous years seeing 6 or 8 different other providers. Some couldn't figure it out, or more commonly, I am sure, some KNEW that I was just looking for "cool drugs". Who knew that the next clown I would see would not only come to believe me, but was interested in figuring out the why and how to fix it. More importantly, they (one person) had no intention of watching me suffer more than necessary during that mission. I know many of you understand what it's like to have a provider who takes you seriously and puts in the actual work. Probably, many more have not. For that, I am empathic to you, stranger. Almost since our beginning, I've been under a "pain management contract." In the early months/first years, probably, my "randoms" were quite regular. To be clear, always at a scheduled appointment, never a random call to some in for a screening or pill count. In fact, never a pill count until recently. After the first couple of years, when I would show up for an appointment, my first question to the person at check-in "do you need a sample before I go use the restroom", was getting answered with "nope" so many times that once I remarked that I hadn't been asked for many months. I gave exactly two during that year. Fast-forward to earlier this year and the answer to my usual question was "yep, you're on the list." No problem as it was never one for me, well, in my mind it shouldn't have been as I was the only one in the building who knew what I knew. An almost life-long buddy, from whom I have been physically separated from for close to 30 years, came to my town for a week. Neither once of us had even so much as seen coke for 25 or so years, but boys will be boys. Our kids are adults and living their own adult lives. A few hours of drinking and laughing and catching up led to "Really?" I know a guy who knows a guy and after five repeat days later, it was time to make sure that his last couple of days back here were us being grown-ups again. When I count the days from when we had our last night of drinking and snorting, there were 8 full calendar days until I had a scheduled appointment on the following day. I didn't go into it thinking, "I can't do this past Xday," but when "oh shit" hit me. My next thought was that there were more than "3-5 days", but even almost 9 before I MIGHT have to provide a sample. Even with that knowledge, it wasn't until I left there to go pick up my pain meds, that I really was able to relax. FF a little over a week and I got a call out of the blue that I needed to show up by end of business to give a sample and to bring my meds. "Uhh, OK. What's going on?" Well, reader, I have already spelled that out for you. My first pill count went off without a hitch, as did that day's sample. I've since read that 3–5 days is nothing to hang your hat on. Metabolism, body fat, yadda, yadda. I did learn that there was not a lab in house at that building at the time. I got the reminder of the truth regarding that years-old adage that talks about "..... but if you F<{# just one goat" holds true. My samples have yet to become "random" again. They are every, single time. (Still just that one pill count.) I haven't been "fired" as a patient, and I know it takes time to rebuild trust. In closing (really, who even is still reading) I had never before been asked about my alcohol intake (aside from the assessment which I'm told was part of.) Last visit it was brought up. I assured them I have never once decided to have a cocktail on my way in to an appointment. This is when I learned of metabolites left behind from drinking. I was "reminded" that as part of the contract, I said I wouldn't drink. My response was that I'd take them at their word that it's in there, but as far as I was concerned, this was the first I was hearing about it. I said that I was aware that mixing the pain meds with alcohol could result in me not waking up and that surely if they could see how much alcohol (roughly) I had consumed on the day previously, they should be able to figure out that I wasn't mixing. Their answer was, "I may have verbally told you that you could imbibe, but not to mix the two." I reassured them that I don't have a death wish and I would continue to never mix them. It got left at that. That's when I learned that I don't have to be under any influence of alcohol for them to know if I had a drink the day before.
The More You Know