Wanna Beat a Drug Test? Switch From Pot to Oxycodone
Yesterday, I wrote about false positive drug test results, noting that many schools aren't required to confirm positive results and quoting a top expert who believes that more expensive follow-up testing is often not being conducted. Obviously, the potential for innocent students to be accused and stigmatized is profoundly disturbing. Still, the issue of false negatives raises interesting issues as well. From The New Scientist:
As marijuana remains the easiest drug to detect, is it any wonder that kids are turning to dangerous synthetic opioids that are undetectable 2/3 thirds of the time? We've always understood that more dangerous drugs leave the body faster, but oxycodone usually fails to show up even when it's still in your system.
Thus the ONDCP's argument that drug testing 'identifies use before it becomes a huge problem' is fundamentally incompatible with what these tests actually do. Given the ease with which one can avoid detection of all drugs other than marijuana, only students with severe addiction problems are likely to be identified. And if their problem is oxycodone, they'll often evade detection altogether.
So student drug testing is more likely to increase prescription drug abuse than prevent it. But before we accuse ONDCP of having its head up its ass yet again, check out their awesome life-saving guide on how to dispose of valuable unused prescriptions by mixing them with kitty litter.
If only more people disposed of their drugs instead of snorting them, we'd be out of the dark forest of hopelessness and instead skipping merrily through the lush meadows of healthiness and well-being. Surely, there's nothing more euphoric than being completely sober, even if it requires frequent urine inspections to keep you that way.
Of 710 drug tests performed, 85 gave incorrect results, either because the urine sample was too dilute to interpret properly, or because the test picked up prescription medicines. Meanwhile, routine tests failed to detect the painkiller oxycodone in nearly two-thirds of cases.So the synthetic opioids driving America's growing problem with prescription abuse among young people are remarkably difficult to detect through the exact urine testing programs ONDCP is pitching as a solution to the problem of youth drug abuse.
As marijuana remains the easiest drug to detect, is it any wonder that kids are turning to dangerous synthetic opioids that are undetectable 2/3 thirds of the time? We've always understood that more dangerous drugs leave the body faster, but oxycodone usually fails to show up even when it's still in your system.
Thus the ONDCP's argument that drug testing 'identifies use before it becomes a huge problem' is fundamentally incompatible with what these tests actually do. Given the ease with which one can avoid detection of all drugs other than marijuana, only students with severe addiction problems are likely to be identified. And if their problem is oxycodone, they'll often evade detection altogether.
So student drug testing is more likely to increase prescription drug abuse than prevent it. But before we accuse ONDCP of having its head up its ass yet again, check out their awesome life-saving guide on how to dispose of valuable unused prescriptions by mixing them with kitty litter.
If only more people disposed of their drugs instead of snorting them, we'd be out of the dark forest of hopelessness and instead skipping merrily through the lush meadows of healthiness and well-being. Surely, there's nothing more euphoric than being completely sober, even if it requires frequent urine inspections to keep you that way.
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oxycodone
[email protected]#k pills
you are a stupid homo.
you are a stupid homo.
Oxycodone
Now I see why drug policy has been so flat footed and obdurate about the government's crackdown on pain treating physicians, going so far as to try to bury our movement.
You have been comparing marijuana favorably to the 'evil opioids', despite all the science that says that opioids are remarkably safe and effective-comparable, in fact, to the safety of marijuana.
So you guys are employing the drug- warrior scare tactics, except you think it benefits you here.
Lame.
Siobhan Reynolds
Pain Relief Network
Re: Oxycodone
Siobhan,
I regret that you interpretted my post this way. In my, and our, defense please know that we've worked tirelessly to educate the public about the war on pain patients and doctors. For example, you are mentioned by name more than a hundred times on our site. We greatly appreciate your efforts.
My point here wasn't to demonize oxycodone at all, but rather to point out the irony that their drug tests don't work on one of the main drugs they're concerned about right now. I could have chosen my words more carefully in order to avoid appearing to condone oxy-hysteria.
I stand by my assessment that marijuana is safer, but hopefully not to the detriment of your important work. Sometimes it's hard to frame an issue such as drug testing without rubbing up against other subjects that warrant their own discussion.
Please understand and feel welcome to share your perspective here anytime.
Thanks.
Oxycodone
Thanks. I appreciate your response. I know that DRC Net has been unique in their support of the pain issue, and all of us at PRN are grateful. I was only commenting that there seems to be a strong opiophobic element to the "drug policy" public message that is simply unwarranted and unfair.
Glad to get this aired in this forum.
Thanks again for all your organization has done.
Siobhan
Oxycodone
As an addendum to my comment above. You cannot make the argument that marijuana is safer than oxycodone. You are comparing apples and oranges.
Marijuana helps greatly with the treatment of some kinds of pain and should be available for use wherever it might help a suffering individual. Oxycodone, or hydromorphone, etc. are pain medicines which act directly on the mechanism of the perception of pain itself, and are chemically identical to the endorphins we have in our bodies that modulate pain signals for all of us. Marijuana has some hallucinogenic properties which I believe can be very helpful for suffering of all kinds, whereas opioids have no such properties.
So if your problem is severe pain, the medicine for that ailment is opioids. These drugs are extraordinarily safe and extremely effective. When titrated to optimal therapeutic effect, they can virtually eliminate the pain and the physical infirmity that accompanies it, thereby stopping the deterioration suffered by victims of chronic pain. As most people with serious pain have never experienced the relief possible with proper application of opioid therapy, they understandably assume that the medicine doesn't work. But I can assure you from having been involved in thousands of cases of chronic pain, peoples lives are restored, families brought back from the brink, with proper opioid pain management. Once their doctor is arrested, these patients, now numbering in the hundreds of thousands every year, are essentially given a death sentence as they watch their lives and bodies collapse under the stress of insupportable pain.
While is it widely believed that overdose is a common danger of the use of opioids this is only true in the opioid naive patient. When patients in pain use opioids on an ongoing basis it is virtually impossible for them to overdose. The phenomenon of tolerance makes this so.
But leaving this argument aside, drug policy, i.e. the marijuana community has been promoting misconceptions about the dangers of opioids that have caused friction between our two movements.
This is unfortunate. We should all be working toward making these medicines medically available.
Siobhan Reynolds
Painreliefnetwork.org
All drugs should be
All drugs should be legal...and used medically and recreationally...its what they were made to do. In fact its actually tha prohibition of drugs that leads to most of tha crime and its people's own ignorance that leads to its failure. Ive been using drugs for years to explore different realms of my mind and Im a better person for it. As long as we have tha right to pursuit our own happiness...we should have tha right to get f*cked up...because sober is only 1 way to look at things. But lets face it...drugs legality are directly affected to thier prophitability. For instance, marijuana is tha most harmless drug on earth but I cant tell u how many times i been in tha back of police car...how much in fines Ive paid...how many days i spent in jail for that magical plant. Yet, I can go right down tha street and buy one of tha most deabiliting, physically dependant, mind altering and dangerous substances on this planet...ALCOHOL. I mean Ive been more clear on PCP than alcohol...but its what makes money. And no one is going to legalize weed anytime soon because you can grow it in your backyard virtually cutting big business out of tha equation. But i say...live and let live...get high...get low...do what makes you happy because one day it will all be over anyway. Have fun people...and be safe.
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