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.

  • @ZapBeebz_
    link
    299 days ago

    Even if someone has used it only once, even if they just tried it, they are ineligible for military service.

    Well that’s just false. You’ll get denied if you pop hot on a drug test at MEPS, but they don’t tend to care if you’ve smoked in the past, except as a barometer for if you’ll smoke in the future. And, like almost everything else in the DoD, there’s a waiver form you can fill out for it too

    • @AngryCommieKender
      link
      20
      edit-2
      9 days ago

      Can confirm. I signed said waiver. I told them that yeah, I smoke weed, but if my job requires me to be clean, I’m clean. Except Adderall. They gave me 30 days to get clean, sent me to MEPS and made me a Nuke. Then nuke school wouldn’t let me leave and they made me an officer and an instructor.

      I joined the Navy to see the world, ffs. I’d already seen South Carolina :/

      • @CptEnder
        link
        159 days ago

        Lmao I’m picturing a series of comedic events like guy enlists to quietly do his service and sail the world, but keeps getting promoted and sent to the most boring places.

        “Congrats Chief, were sending you to West Virginia”

        “Congrats LT, we’re sending you to South Carolina”

        “Congrats Commander, we’re transferring you to… Montana”

        • @Wogi
          link
          69 days ago

          Nevermind Montana admiral we need you in DC.

      • @TexasDrunk
        link
        69 days ago

        I left as ET2 and 90% of my time was at prototype in Ballston Spa as an instructor. I went on one short tour and we saw the Persian Gulf.

        Y’all still got a gator that hangs out down there? Are the students still headed to that shitty dive bar that didn’t used to check IDs? I’m genuinely curious because I haven’t been there in over 20 years, but I heard the shitty dive actually checks IDs now.

        • @AngryCommieKender
          link
          3
          edit-2
          9 days ago

          No clue, I was there from '02-'05, sounds like I may have been there while you were there.

          • @TexasDrunk
            link
            29 days ago

            We may have been friends. I was that guy that did that thing that one time.

    • @mx_smith
      link
      59 days ago

      Also confirmed, signed a waiver and still went to a top secret A-school.

    • @3ntranced
      link
      18 days ago

      So as someone who’s in his mid 20s and chops more grass than a lawnmower, what kind of experience would I have trying to enlist?