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Re: Drug Tests, and a ? about medical records » Daveman

Posted by Elizabeth on June 12, 2001, at 13:35:08

In reply to Re: Ambien and Drug Tests, posted by Daveman on June 11, 2001, at 20:38:41

> > Benzos aren't part of the basic 5-panel test: it includes marijuana, amphetamine, opiates, cocaine, and PCP.
>
> Benzodiazepenes are commonly tested for in any job where motor skills are required.

Ahh, of course. All my friends who've had pre-employment screenings (which they *don't* do in academia, BTW) do desk work (computer-related, mainly). I do know one guy who was working for the Department of Energy and had to be tested for everything under the sun (those national labs have a very stringent drug-free workplace policy!).

You make a good point that employers aren't supposed to discriminate against you for taking any legally prescribed medication. Also, as you say, it's important to find out what will be tested for (if you aren't told -- you should be).

Some centrally-acting drugs can show up on common tests. I once tested positive for amphetamine because I had been taking selegiline, a metabolic precursor for l-amphetamine and l-methamphetamine: it can happen.) Buprenorphine -- a synthetic derivative of thebaine, a pharmacologically inactive chemical found in opium -- doesn't show up as an "opiate," presumably because it's not metabolised to morphine or 6-monoacetylmorphine. (Demerol and fentanyl probably wouldn't show up on the basic "opiate" test, either; nor would naltrexone, which is good news for people who don't want their employers to know about their colourful drug addiction histories.)

I'm still curious about this "other" category. What else might it include? Wouldn't they have to test specifically for each "other" drug?

I'm thinking of a recent, uh, mishap in which I was found comatose and tested positive for benzodiazepines -- no surprise, since I'd taken clonazepam less than 8 hours before *and* the paramedics had given me lorazepam before transporting me to the ER -- and the hospital staff decided, based on this and my psych history, that I must have taken a drug overdose. My family, certain that this was not what had happened (not just wishful thinking: they found all the relevant pill bottles), tried to get them to do a comprehensive quantitative tox screen, to no avail. Sometimes I think I should try and destroy all my medical records. I vaguely recall that in Massachusetts there's some confusing law about whose property a medical record is -- do you know anything about that? It's something like, the physical record is technically the property of the doctor or the hospital, but the patient has a number of rights related to what happens to the record and its content (e.g., under most circumstances the patient must be allowed to view or obtain a copy of the record, the record or the information therein usually can't be released to anyone else without the patient's consent, etc.). I'm guessing that at least some other states have similarly twisted laws.

-elizabeth


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