Info on False positives on a drug test?

Question

I diddnt know i was going to be drug tested today for a new position i was hired for.

This morning before i left for work, I took a Claritin D to help with my nose and allergies,...

Long story short, i had no idea that pseudoephedrine can trigger a false positive for Meth which ive NEVER done.

What is the process this is going to go through now? I know there sending it to a lab somewhere for additional testing, but can doctors test specifically for Cold medicine? Or is this going to hose me? this new job is very important...

Answer 1

Usually the only people who worry about this stuff are people who actullay do drugs.

Answer 2

Call them and tell them they will probably test you again so lay off the meth for a week.

Answer 3

Yes pseudoephedrine can cause false positives for amphetamine/methamphetamine. And yes they can do further testing that will be able to tell the difference. The special methods that can tell exactly what substance is present (using a method called mass spectrometry) use extremely expensive equipment, which is only found in specialist labs. So it's standard practice to do an initial screen using a simpler technique called immunoassay. This is cheap, quick and very sensitive for drugs, but not so good at telling the difference between similar things. So positives will get followed up with the specialist techniques for confirmation/investigation. Don't stress!