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Old April 17th 07, 02:56 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
Gig 601XL Builder
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Default 3rd class medical urinalysis?

Sylvain wrote:
wrote:

Why be concerned with a drug screen? The two main reasons why people
might worry about a drug screen a
1) An idiot who is using illegal drugs which will prevent him/her
from being a good pilot
2) An idiot's attempt to hide a serious medical condition that would
impair his/her ability to fly

If niether of these apply to you, then are you trolling?


Do you have teenage kids or live near some or spend some time on
campus (just to name a few obvious hazards but same goes if any of
your acquaintances smokes any); just walking in a room where someone
has smoked pot is enough for you to test positive; think about it if
your job depends on peeing in a cup once in a while...

Then there is the assumption that the tests don't fail (all tests
give either false negatives or false positives to some extents); do
you know for sure the list of substances -- many perfectly legitimate
-- that you might be using that could trigger a false positive?

--Sylvain


I have a lot of employees and would be employees that take drug screens for
the companies I represent and have spent a lot of time dealing with the
results and I'd be tickled to death if you could find me any proof that just
being in a room with a pot smoker is enough to make you test positive much
less being in one where someone has smoked in the past. If you test positive
for pot you got enough in you to get high.

You are right about the tests failing. Especially the quick tests. They fail
at a rate close to 50% both false positives and negatives that's why we
stopped using them. We use a lab with a mass spectrometer that could
probably tell what you had for dinner last Thursday. And a positive is a
positive only after a medical review officer talks to the tested individual
and finds out all the legal substances that they could have ingested that
might give a false positive.

Drug screens aren't perfect but the ones properly done are as close as we
can get right now.

BTW, I don't remember who in the thread mentioned it but the poppy seed
false positive is an urban myth.