Anyone experienced with positive test from exposure to cocaine?
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Real World
Posts: 729
Anyone experienced with positive test from exposure to cocaine?
Good Morning
Thankfully everyone is alive and safe today. My wife overdosed two weeks ago while home alone with our son.
In the aftermath I’ve cooperated completely with CPS and the police. Unfortunately, while I passed the urine test CPS gave me at the hospital and two others this year for work, my young son and I tested positive for cocaine after getting hair tested.
Im wondering if anyone is knowledgeable about hair tests? My arms got shaved and I tested positive with level around 1350. This was a test by Quest - no breakdown of metabolites etcetera.
I had spent that afternoon cleaning and sanitizing the bathroom where everything happened. I hadn’t showered so I’m confident that the cocaine was on me and not in me. My six year old and I are not recreational cocaine users but my level was around 1350 and his was around 950.
i don’t know what a typical level is for a user - I’ve learned more about cocaine this year than I ever wanted to but this is more education.
My objective now is to prove as quickly as possible that I am not a drug user. CPS is actually confident about that but they very appropriately do not take chances and have placed my son in a relatives home while they sort things out.
Yesterday when they told me we tested tested positive it was a shock but my first action was to go pay for my own test - two actually, one identical to what they ordered- same lab same collection facility and the other a much more comprehensive one that will break it out in terms of cocaine vs metabolites that should show that the poison was on us not in us.
im wondering if anyone can give me an idea of what 1350 and 950 represent in terms of actual use? Is that what you’d expect from a regular user? Occasional? One time?
Anyone with experience with this would be a help. I’ve been totally cooperative with CPS and the authorities and the evidence says “no way is this guy on drugs”. When I first discovered my wife’s use at the beginning of the year she was on a plane to treatment hours later with only the clothes on her back. She came back to town 45 days later and stayed in another treatment/sober living facility with 24 hour care for another 4.5 months. When she went into treatment she was not being cooperative and forthcoming so I invited my local PD detectives to please do a K9 search knowing they would find felony evidence if they chose to prosecute me but of course they did not. They were quite wonderful to work with but there’s an incident report from then and CPS has it.
This time I was out of town and nothing was hidden - I found her syringes and an “8 ball” and asked the same detectives to come get it, filled out a statement and agreed to participate in the prosecution of any charges.
CPS knows that and knows I have long term sobriety in AA but rules are rules and I thanked them for their service, acknowledged that they are certainly correct to make sure my son is safe first then investigate me because frankly an addict would say just what I’m saying but they would be more convincing. I’ve asked them simply to look at everything, consider the possibility that I was exposed to cocaine while cleaning up and tell me how I can prove to them that I am not a drug user or someone who would enable, protect or tolerate active addiction in the home where my son has to live.
lots of info here but if there are folks with some experience with this and knowledge that might be helpful I could benefit from your experience.
i would also caution others that if someone in your home has an issue and there are children present you want to make very sure you don’t repeat my error - shower and change into new or definitely clean clothing away from the house where you can’t pick up any residue from the environment. I had no idea how common it is to test positive due to that and of course if you’ve been using the shower ain’t gonna help.
Some context for those levels and any experience based wisdom on how best to prove that you are not and have not used drugs despite a positive hair test when dealing with COS would be valuable.
Thanks in advance and prayers to you and the person in your life fighting this disease.
Thankfully everyone is alive and safe today. My wife overdosed two weeks ago while home alone with our son.
In the aftermath I’ve cooperated completely with CPS and the police. Unfortunately, while I passed the urine test CPS gave me at the hospital and two others this year for work, my young son and I tested positive for cocaine after getting hair tested.
Im wondering if anyone is knowledgeable about hair tests? My arms got shaved and I tested positive with level around 1350. This was a test by Quest - no breakdown of metabolites etcetera.
I had spent that afternoon cleaning and sanitizing the bathroom where everything happened. I hadn’t showered so I’m confident that the cocaine was on me and not in me. My six year old and I are not recreational cocaine users but my level was around 1350 and his was around 950.
i don’t know what a typical level is for a user - I’ve learned more about cocaine this year than I ever wanted to but this is more education.
My objective now is to prove as quickly as possible that I am not a drug user. CPS is actually confident about that but they very appropriately do not take chances and have placed my son in a relatives home while they sort things out.
Yesterday when they told me we tested tested positive it was a shock but my first action was to go pay for my own test - two actually, one identical to what they ordered- same lab same collection facility and the other a much more comprehensive one that will break it out in terms of cocaine vs metabolites that should show that the poison was on us not in us.
im wondering if anyone can give me an idea of what 1350 and 950 represent in terms of actual use? Is that what you’d expect from a regular user? Occasional? One time?
Anyone with experience with this would be a help. I’ve been totally cooperative with CPS and the authorities and the evidence says “no way is this guy on drugs”. When I first discovered my wife’s use at the beginning of the year she was on a plane to treatment hours later with only the clothes on her back. She came back to town 45 days later and stayed in another treatment/sober living facility with 24 hour care for another 4.5 months. When she went into treatment she was not being cooperative and forthcoming so I invited my local PD detectives to please do a K9 search knowing they would find felony evidence if they chose to prosecute me but of course they did not. They were quite wonderful to work with but there’s an incident report from then and CPS has it.
This time I was out of town and nothing was hidden - I found her syringes and an “8 ball” and asked the same detectives to come get it, filled out a statement and agreed to participate in the prosecution of any charges.
CPS knows that and knows I have long term sobriety in AA but rules are rules and I thanked them for their service, acknowledged that they are certainly correct to make sure my son is safe first then investigate me because frankly an addict would say just what I’m saying but they would be more convincing. I’ve asked them simply to look at everything, consider the possibility that I was exposed to cocaine while cleaning up and tell me how I can prove to them that I am not a drug user or someone who would enable, protect or tolerate active addiction in the home where my son has to live.
lots of info here but if there are folks with some experience with this and knowledge that might be helpful I could benefit from your experience.
i would also caution others that if someone in your home has an issue and there are children present you want to make very sure you don’t repeat my error - shower and change into new or definitely clean clothing away from the house where you can’t pick up any residue from the environment. I had no idea how common it is to test positive due to that and of course if you’ve been using the shower ain’t gonna help.
Some context for those levels and any experience based wisdom on how best to prove that you are not and have not used drugs despite a positive hair test when dealing with COS would be valuable.
Thanks in advance and prayers to you and the person in your life fighting this disease.
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Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: USA
Posts: 980
PF
I am sorry to read what your wife is going through & also the mess you find yourself in with CPS.
I don't have any info to share concerning your & sons positive hair drug test results.
I think your post is an excellent example to anyone who is closely involved with an active addict. We are at great risk of easily becoming caught up with the authorities should things go wrong.
I know my addict was involved in numerous illegal activities which could have easily gotten me in big trouble with the law. For years, I was so caught up with the daily drama of dealing with my addict, that I totally & stupidly over looked her daily highly illegal activities. Plenty of things went wrong for her & she was constantly caught up in the legal system. Thankfully, it never spilled over to me - Although that was just a matter of luck on my part.
I hope your independent second set of drug tests serves to prove your innocence.
I am sorry to read what your wife is going through & also the mess you find yourself in with CPS.
I don't have any info to share concerning your & sons positive hair drug test results.
I think your post is an excellent example to anyone who is closely involved with an active addict. We are at great risk of easily becoming caught up with the authorities should things go wrong.
I know my addict was involved in numerous illegal activities which could have easily gotten me in big trouble with the law. For years, I was so caught up with the daily drama of dealing with my addict, that I totally & stupidly over looked her daily highly illegal activities. Plenty of things went wrong for her & she was constantly caught up in the legal system. Thankfully, it never spilled over to me - Although that was just a matter of luck on my part.
I hope your independent second set of drug tests serves to prove your innocence.
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Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: W Washington
Posts: 11,589
i'm sorry Poh, but drug metabolites will ONLY show up in the drugs have been INGESTED. not from incidental contact.
Drug metabolites are produced in the body only if drugs have been ingested. Children in drug exposed environments are most often not drug users themselves, so drug metabolites are typically absent when a child is being tested for drug exposure.
that exposure can be:
• Contact with drug smoke,
• Contact with sweat or sebum (skin oil) of a drug user,
• Contact with the actual drug,
• Accidental or intentional ingestion of the drug(s).
If drugs were in the air or on a person’s hands and thereby got on a person’s hair from outside, the drug would be present as the drug substance itself, and not as certain metabolites or with metabolite/parent drug ratios which are known to be produced by ingestion.
Drug metabolites are produced in the body only if drugs have been ingested. Children in drug exposed environments are most often not drug users themselves, so drug metabolites are typically absent when a child is being tested for drug exposure.
that exposure can be:
• Contact with drug smoke,
• Contact with sweat or sebum (skin oil) of a drug user,
• Contact with the actual drug,
• Accidental or intentional ingestion of the drug(s).
If drugs were in the air or on a person’s hands and thereby got on a person’s hair from outside, the drug would be present as the drug substance itself, and not as certain metabolites or with metabolite/parent drug ratios which are known to be produced by ingestion.
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Real World
Posts: 729
Update
well the first test came back negative today. This was same collection facility, same tech, same clippers, same lab and even the same dr signing off and as expected I came back negative.
this test only looked for cocaine, not metabolites but if the parent chemical ain’t there....
the only explanation for this that I can see is that as I figured, I had residue on my arms where they shaved. Lesson learned.
CPS? Well despite ample evidence that I am not a drug user and a test confirming what I told them, they are not changing the safety plan - they did not hesitate to take my son when the first test was positive but a clean retest got me “well we have a guy who knows this stuff and he says your level can’t have gone from the 1300s to under 300 so we need to figure that out and we also want to talk to the doctor who prescribed your vyvanse”.
in other words they are not looking for facts they are cherry picking facts that support the idea that I’m guilty.
the more detailed test comes back any day. Assuming it validates this last one and they still refuse to listen I guess I have to ask for a hearing and tell them I am no longer willing to go along with their voluntary plan.
My fear is that they get a rubber stamp in court if you fight so hopefully they clear this up. It makes no sense that I would do what I’ve done if I was a drug user. Perhaps the lab will acknowledge that the only way this happens is if the first test was contaminated and measured what was on not in the hair.
what a mess. God will sort this out. Glad I’m not in his job.
this test only looked for cocaine, not metabolites but if the parent chemical ain’t there....
the only explanation for this that I can see is that as I figured, I had residue on my arms where they shaved. Lesson learned.
CPS? Well despite ample evidence that I am not a drug user and a test confirming what I told them, they are not changing the safety plan - they did not hesitate to take my son when the first test was positive but a clean retest got me “well we have a guy who knows this stuff and he says your level can’t have gone from the 1300s to under 300 so we need to figure that out and we also want to talk to the doctor who prescribed your vyvanse”.
in other words they are not looking for facts they are cherry picking facts that support the idea that I’m guilty.
the more detailed test comes back any day. Assuming it validates this last one and they still refuse to listen I guess I have to ask for a hearing and tell them I am no longer willing to go along with their voluntary plan.
My fear is that they get a rubber stamp in court if you fight so hopefully they clear this up. It makes no sense that I would do what I’ve done if I was a drug user. Perhaps the lab will acknowledge that the only way this happens is if the first test was contaminated and measured what was on not in the hair.
what a mess. God will sort this out. Glad I’m not in his job.
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Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: W Washington
Posts: 11,589
your six year old son also tested positive for cocaine, correct? and no one knows what happened during the time he was left alone in the care of the drug seeking, drug using-in-the-home parent. i would think we would all be screaming if we read this as a news story and CPS did NOT step in and remove the child. or too quickly releasing the child back to the home without taking extensive protective measures had been taken to assure the child's safety.
the entire experience had to be truly traumatic for the child. he was alone with his only adult guardian od'ing in front of him. i'm curious when you got home, did you have the child removed from the home and away from the chaos AND the drugs? you said you spent a lot of time cleaning the bathroom - where WAS the boy at that time?
there are a lot of unanswered questions here.
when and how did she acquire the drugs? did the dealer come to the house or did she go get the drugs, taking the child with her?
where and how did she acquire the needles? needles plural indicates that she wasn't just planning to do one hit and be done.
how long was she shooting up in the home with the child present?
what was the child doing during the time? what did he see?
was there anyone else at the home using with the addict?
the entire experience had to be truly traumatic for the child. he was alone with his only adult guardian od'ing in front of him. i'm curious when you got home, did you have the child removed from the home and away from the chaos AND the drugs? you said you spent a lot of time cleaning the bathroom - where WAS the boy at that time?
there are a lot of unanswered questions here.
when and how did she acquire the drugs? did the dealer come to the house or did she go get the drugs, taking the child with her?
where and how did she acquire the needles? needles plural indicates that she wasn't just planning to do one hit and be done.
how long was she shooting up in the home with the child present?
what was the child doing during the time? what did he see?
was there anyone else at the home using with the addict?
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Join Date: May 2010
Location: USA
Posts: 13,560
I would like to commend you on getting law enforcement involved. This shows you are willing to do what needs to be done. This is where the rubber meets the road so to speak, and the step that is missed the most. So many don't want to be the cause of their qualifier having consequences. In reality, it's themselves that caused the consequences to start with.
I wish you all the best!
I wish you all the best!
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Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 635
I can't speak to cocaine. But I will say when my ex had tested positive for methamphetamine and our judge was forcing me to continue to allow unsupervised visits, the drug testing facility owner told me I should have my children tested. He said that children have a higher rate of respiration, and thus, are able to absorb the drug differently than adults. He said that he works closely with CPS and that, of the children pulled from environments where meth is used, over 70% test positive. I had a hair follicle performed on one of my children. I will forever regret not having them both tested, but I really wasn't expecting a positive result. I just thought I'd give it a shot, and I literally spent my last dime on that test- I was flat out broke. When the test came back positive I freaked out. My gut was telling me I better have my other child tested right away, but the drug testing facility owner said not to worry, that CPS would surely be getting involved soon enough, and would test him themselves (there's a lesson there- NEVER take legal advice from someone who is not an attorney). I thought for sure he was right. Nope. They didn't investigate until 3 months later, and they only investigated me. All they wanted to know was that my children were out of that environment, which they finally were, as the judge had finally gotten the picture that this was not a safe situation. But things were kinda scary for a while. I remember trying to find toxicologists to testify, but none of them were aware that children CAN test positive due to passive exposure. There are articles on PubMed that attest to this, but apparently a lot of the experts haven't gotten the memo. I contacted the toxicologists who performed this research, but they would have ended up costing me thousands of dollars to testify as witness experts (travel fees+ witness testimony). Thankfully it never came to that, as I never would have been able to afford it, anyway.
Anyway, that being said, I have never heard of an adult testing positive for passive exposure of any kind of drug. But I don't doubt anything anymore. I think this is something that needs to be researched much more extensively, and that all law enforcement, CPS, and family law judges should be required to complete continued education courses as more information becomes available.
Anyway, that being said, I have never heard of an adult testing positive for passive exposure of any kind of drug. But I don't doubt anything anymore. I think this is something that needs to be researched much more extensively, and that all law enforcement, CPS, and family law judges should be required to complete continued education courses as more information becomes available.
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