i've known a few guys who failed drug tests, and tried the poppy seed excuse. like scotty said, they retested them and were able to tell if it really was edible poppy seeds.
one thing i won't do is bail any of my friends out of jail. you get popped, you do the time or cry to someone else. and smile when you say hi to big bubba ...
i have been somewhat outspoken about legalization, but i completely agree that certain occupations, like people who operate vehicles or heavy machinery, and people in law enforcement should be tested, even if everything were legal.
unfortunately, the one group that should have mandatory testing more than anyone else because of the availability of controlled substances are health care workers, especially doctors and nurses. as it stands now here, there has to be a reasonable suspicion to test anyone, and then the lawyers get involved on both sides. the facts get muddled, the lawyers get rich, and the addict/doctor or nurse gets a slap on the wrist in most cases.
i have personal experience with this. an old girlfriend was a nurse, so i hung out with many of her peers over the 3 year period that we dated. besides the rampant alcohol and tobacco abuse (both of which are drugs all the same), i saw the obvious signs of prescription drug abuse on many occasions. you can almost always tell by looking at their eyes. your liver rats you out.
a few months after we broke up, a buddy was over my apartment, and was looking for aspirin. he knows that i abhor pills of any kind; i don't even like to take aspirin, but i keep some for skull cracking hangovers. he was very surprised to find a pill bottle tucked away in my medicine cabinet with my name on the prescription. the label said it was a drug for ear infections, of which i have suffered since i was a kid, but i knew that i hadn't taken anything for it for years. so i looked at the little pills, and looked them up in the physicians desk reference that she left behind when she moved out. it turned out that they were diazepam, aka vallium. the highest dosage available in pill form to boot.
so even the nice girl that i thought was far above any of that garbage, especially since her dad was a nyc police captain, was abusing as well. even if it was just for partying, it was wrong. it seems she was even forging her doctor's signature on the script.
i was just going to forget about it, and her, but she stalked me for a while. so i threatened to turn her in to the state nursing authority with the evidence. i never heard from her again, at least not for years after. and my stupid a$$ buddy (that i had been friends with for almost 30 years) stole most of my evidence without me knowing. that would have been fun: reporting someone to a state authority, then having an empty bottle with my name on it as evidence.
p.s.- my buddy and i remained uncomfortable friends for a while after that, but that pretty much ended after he had a drug overdose and went into a coma. our group of friends rallied around him and his family until he recovered, and was released from the hospital. we all tried to help him stay clean, and get healthy since he developed cardiomyopathy from years of abuse.
it wasn't a couple of weeks later that he was drinking and smoking again, and trying to see if any of us had any "contacts" to get him more drugs.
some people never learn. i expect the next time i see him will be at his wake.
My co-worker/boss was trained in this area and also says the same thing.
