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.
I would do it without her word. Drug tests like these aren’t accurate enough, and the police aren’t smart enough to handle this appropriately. I have helped numerous people pass drug tests.
Is my one life really more important than multiple other peoples?
I’m not saying your life is more important than multiple others, I’m pointing out the risk you’re asking others to take. If the person you’re asking to take that risk has responsibility to their own family, children, possibly elder family members, then we’re still discussing impacting the lives of multiple people on both sides of the fence.
I agree that testing like this is shit, but until that’s changed or at least somehow improved, then “just lie about it” is an unrealistic expectation.