How do drug tests and screens identify the drugs you are using?

Question

I am diabetic and smoke pot on a daily basis for pain relief and comfort. My medications daily include hydrocodone, soma,ibuprofen, glyburide,simvastatin,aspirin,lisinporil and hydrochlorothiazide. All prescibed by the Veterans Hospital because I am a vietnam veteran with service connected injuries. If I am tested by urine, hair,or mouth swab can any of the tests specifically single out the pot in my system?

Answer 1

If you are looking for more pain relief then maybe you should talk to you doctor about the strength of Vicodin (5mg of hydrocode/500mg of acetaminophen) you are on.  Vicodin ES (7.5mg/750mg) is the strongest of them, but there is also Lorcet and Lortab which are all hydrocodones, they just have different strengths (I'm not sure off the top of my head what there strengths are exactly...I think the strongest is 10mg/660mg).

There is also a drugs like Marinol that are pain killers that I guess you could say have pot in them.  I wouldn't, however, continue to smoke pot.

Good Luck!

Answer 2

I've done hundreds of urinary and serum drug screens (hair and buccal scrapings just aren't done in an accredited institution). Both will ferret out cannibanoids (marajuana metabolites) but the serum is usually for very unusual chemicals and for quantitation of pos urinary tests. Lab and nursing personnel go to extreme measures to block masking or otherwise hiding of ALL drugs.

Answer 3

Yes, the drug tests can distinguish between illegal substances and ones that have been prescribed to you.  I don't think that they can do that via mouth swab but you can test hair and urine for illegal drugs. many companies now require a pre-employment drug screen and they only look for illegal drugs.

Answer 4

First, thank you for your service and your sacrifice to your country.  

I'm not an expert but I believe urine tests are the most common way to check for drug use.  I believe the tests look for the chemical compounds your body (kidneys and liver) creates as it breaksdown the drug ingredients.  If you are worried about the pot being detected...  It is possible (but very very VERY unlikely) that one of your prescribed medications might mask the compounds from pot (for example poppie seed muffins sometimes create false positive tests for opiates).  I've heard that it takes ~ 30 days for the body to get rid of the traces of pot (I believe the pot compounds are fat soluable so it's easy for your body to store them).  I've also heard that drinking large quantities of water will dilute your urine enough to "pass".  However, drinking large amounts of water can s***w up your body chemistry (electrolytes) and can kill you.  Books by pro athletes mention infusing "clean" urine into their bladder so they don't get caught for steriod use.  As it sounds like you have significant health problems, be very careful of these extreme approaches.

Have you looked into the states that legallized medical marijauna?

Good luck.

Answer 5

the how:

Each test line in the test panel contains mouse monoclonal antibody-coupled particles and corresponding drug protein

conjugates.  

Simply, it is an antigen/ antibody reaction.  The drug (THC, etc) is the antigen and the area on the test strip is the antibody.  For the most part it is specific for the drug.  There are some crossreactivities but they are rare.

This holds true for most all of the quick drug screens.

If the drug screen included THC (pot) that you are being tested for, it will single it out.  Also the lower threshold limit for THC is 50 which is very low.