False Positive Drug Test At My Methadone Clinic In Pittsburgh Pa (Page 2)

I've been going to the same methadone clinic for 6 years. I'm on a low dose of 44mg a day and am a model patient. For me, methadone was the answer. It gave me a life. I was living a terrible life before that. I had an awful childhood, started doing drugs as a teenager, eventually got hooked on opiates and worked my way up the ladder from vicoden all the way to H. Multiple rehab and jail stints cleaned me up temporarily, but I always relapsed. The last few years I lived in hotel rooms, and did what I had to do to get money. I was miserable. Finally my boyfriend and I decided we had enough and joined a methadone clinic in a last ditch effort to end the pain of our lives. After the first 3 months I never got a dirty urine again. I earned my privileges one at a time, right on time, and after 2 years I only had to go to the clinic once a week and the rest were take home bottles. I also take an anti-depressant (cylexa) and a benzodiazipine (klonopin 0.5mg, 3 times a day). It's all on the up and up and I never took another drug again. I haven't to this day. I only take my methadone, cylexa, and klonopin - AS PRESCRIBED. In that time period my boyfriend (who was doing just as well as me on the methadone clinic) moved out to the suburbs to a cheap apartment, cut off contact with every single person we knew, and devoted ourselves to living a good,decent, moral life. We started working with a homeless cat organization and that is still what we spend our time doing. We got married too. Then, in 2012, we actually managed to purchase our own home. We had a good car too. We had a life! It just didn't involve very many people. We had lost trust in people and also didn't want to ever go back to the horror of our former life; we figured animals were the best company and we are very content in our rather isolated exsistance. In the last 6 years the only visitor we've ever allowed in our home is my husband's aunt who raised him and we feel safe, secure, and stable. I only tell you all this because it makes what happened so much worse. I get random urine testing monthly, and even though I take my meds every day, I always come up negative for benzos. So my counselor told me I didn't have to keep bringing in forms every month from my doctor because my tests didn't show benzos. Well that counselor left and after 6 years with him I got a new, jerk of a counselor. But whatever... I only go once a week and only have to do a half hour counseling per month. ("counseling"...what a joke). Then last week my urine came up dirty for benzos. I thought this was strange because it had never happened before, but the head-honcho of the clinic told me they just started using a new drug testing lab. (of course they fed-ex the urines to a lab out of state, and they would only switch to a new lab if it was going to save them money). They said you can't take your bottles home, you've lost your privilages until you bring in a form from you doctor. I said I'll go right now and get the form filled out and bring it back. They told me if I paid $35 for a retest that they could then give me my week's worth of take-homes and I could bring the form the following week. And as long as the test comes back just showing klonopin, then I would have my $35 refunded. They said this test actually tests to see what kind of benzo you're taking. I said "fine" because I had nothing to worry about. But the next week they said the test showed I was positive for alprazolam-metabolites, NOT colozapam-metabolites. And they didn't believe me when I told them this is wrong. Now I'm convinced the cheap lab mixed up the results the first time. People who take alprazolam/Xanax do show up positive most of the time, but me and my husband who both take prescribed klonopin always show up negative for benzos. Other people who take klonopin have told me their tests always show negative for benzos too. Now they have taken my privilages. And it just so happened that our car was in the garage getting major work done on the transmission at that moment and going everyday has been a hardship. We got our car back today, but I don't drive, so now my husband has to go everyday too because he has to drive me. And most of all it is so difficult to have these people treat me like I'm a liar and a user. I have been a model patient and so has my husband (and even though they always say "it's not about him, it's about YOU", they still gave him weird testing that they never did before, to check the type of benzo he's taking, and they only did it because of me) They told me I had to sign these papers admitting to it but I refused. I'm innocent. I offered to do a hair follicle test that shows everything in your system for the past 90 days and they said it wouldn't matter. I just want to use an outside lab that can be trusted. But they don't want to help. If anyone has any idea what course of action I can take to prove my innocence to my methadone clinic please let me know. I am not afraid of any legitimate test because I'm telling the truth. I'm just afraid of them screwing me over. It's either error or it's fraud. Obviously the mistake was made on the first, simpler test, that came up positive for benzos. So the retesting of that urine in a specialized test could've been testing the same mixed-up urine from the first one. I NEED ANSWERS. I've done everything I'm supposed to. It's been a tough road but I've been proud of myself for years now and they are making me feel like crap. Please tell me what I can do to resolve this. Thanks for reading this whole tirade.

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REPORT

First of all, congratulations on a job well done! No matter what happens you know the truth and for that reason hold your head high! They can't take that from you! Unfortunately, ppl in methadone clinics are at the mercy of directors who often have attitudes against the very ppl they signed on to help. Some, not all have egos the size of Alaska and anyone questioning their authority or procedures are marked as a trouble maker. So what to do? If the shoe fits.....MAKE TROUBLE. Call DOH (dept of health) and initiate a complaint against them. Do they have a written policy in place? They should, including what they do when someone questions the results. I would ask what percentage of people who tested positive retest as positive? What about chain of custody? Did you initial the sealed bottle so it couldn't be tampered with? How soon after you gave specimen was it tested? You don't say what state your clinic is in but all states must have written policies to address discrepancies. Call their governing authority (either JACHO or CARF) and lodge a formal complaint if procedures were not followed. Regardless of the outcome, I know what a drag it is to have take homes suspended and to not be believed but as I said before, you know the truth. You know how far you have come. You know that you are doing the right thing. No one can take those truths away from you. Dont let their foolishness and unprofessional attitude threaten you by making you so upset you lose sight of what's truly important. You are to be commended for what you have achieved. You give hope to many by showing people that the addicted brain can recover and flourish. Good luck! P.S. I am a registered nurse btw.

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Re: Gypsy Nurse (# 21)

First of all gypsy thank you so much for believing in me I cannot tell you how much that means right now I know for a fact for a while that they are in violation of procedures on you a there are no seals put on are urine samples at all after you go to the bathroom you returned your urine sample on the receptionist desk with no seals at all also I know for a fact that creatinine levels are affected by time the longer your samples go before being tested your creatinine is lowered in the urine I am a CNA I have some medical knowledge and I have suspected for a while that things were not on the up-and-up here I told the counselors and the nurse what I know about procedures and proper lab samples and they have not taken too kindly to me questioning them it is so hard to be controlled by your addiction and also to be controlled by them the previous Clinic I went to I came every other week and it was at this time I was able to finish school unfortunately I had to move out of state to another clinic and have had problems ever since having to go up there so many times a week makes me feel like I am using again like I am chasing my fix thank you so much for your advice that is exactly what I needed to no and that you believe me is what I needed to hear I will do exactly what you said and call those places some people close to me said that I should inform the clinic that I was going to call on them or get a lawyer but I knew threatening these people would not work and then they would definitely have it out for me like you said make some trouble famous with me I'm going to mess with them and yes I will some vindicationfrom this also please excuse the poor grammar I am using dictation right now to text thanks again

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I called my State of CT, Consumer protection, Department of Health, Investigative Services. Tell them your story and they will send many forms that are very tedious. Do that and send them copies from Pharmacy who you get the pills from, and also ask for a "Over the counter products that create false positives". Then go have another blood test and take it back to the clinic. Each State is different, but, most of the Pain Management Centers copy the criteria of the Federal laws. Good Luck.

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Re: Mandy (# 2)

I’m having the same problem right now with my clinic and I’ve asked four others that go to the same clinic and the have failed for benzos also without taking any and we all five have Medicaid. I’m not sure how they would be doing this. Can you please share with me what you learned through your experience ?

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Not supposed to mix methadone and benzodiazepines!

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Re: Worried (# 3)

Hey I go to a clinic about an hour from Pittsburgh and I keep getting false positives and I haven't taken any opiates in 3 in a half years. And all of a sudden I get positive results twice, both right when I'm supposed to get a take home kit!!!! And guess what? I never thought to ask a couple days after what my results were because I have been off of opiates since starting on Methadone. Only took 3 vicodin after a horrific car accident and was in the trauma ER ... all documented..... and this was at the beginning of this year 2022...

So I get told in my monthly counseling session when I'm all excited to be like this was my last one !!! Whawhawhahwha yeah freaking right she says, no you tested positive for opiates as I'm eating a baggie full of everything pretzel thins which I eat every morning for breakfast ... I know it's the poppy seeds but I thought since I'm quite a plump lady it would never affect me ... then she says oh well the lab only keeps your urine for 14 days and this was in the first week of the month..... um ok aren't you getting paid to maybe keep an eye out for this s***, reach out to me see what's going on because you can clearly see in my past 42 drug tests I've only come up positive twice in the last 6 months and I got cleared the one time. But it's still on there and now it's too late. I can't fight and pay the 25 bucks to prove I'm right!!!!! Nope of course not....now I see why all the clients say they try and set you up and they don't want you to dose down to get off the s***... They get paid so much for every milligram of that s*** we are each on!!!!!! And if I was to relapse again you can see what I usually relapse with and it's not opiates so they should just know I'm telling the truth. Like y'all ain't doing s*** for me and my recovery. Actually you are giving me all this damn stress about take homes!!!!!!

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Re: Mandy (# 4)

I've had a similar issue with my methadone clinic here in lansing michigan. I've been clean for 10 plus years and all of a sudden show up with opiates in my urine??? Only thing I've taken was antibiotics and prednisone. I swear on everything I wouldn't mess up my sobriety and damn proud of it! But of course they don't believe you and took my take homes away and was only going twice a month. I had them retest it and they said it came back codiene. Wth??? Especially when I haven't touched anything but my methadone, prednisone antibiotics and cholesterol and blood pressure meds. What can I do???

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