HELPING the girlfriend! PLEASE help! Cheers.

[Nighthawk9]

Ok, so my girlfriend is on probation. Every month she is subject to a laboratory saliva test...mouth swab in the cheek and all that.

On 18MAY2010 she had a drug test.
On 15JUN2010 she was informed that she had tested positive.

They waited 30 days to notify her, this apparent threat to society, that she had failed. She was never provided the opportunity to submit a second drug test and the probation officer has failed to provide her with any documentation.

From what I've read, if a test pops positive it gets flagged and submitted for a "confirmation test."

She now has a court hearing on Monday (it's Tuesday now.) She has never had any other offense in her two years of probation and nothing on her record before that. Her probation officer didn't give her a warning or anything, just immediately sent her to a probation revocation hearing.

Now, I don't smoke and I barely drink. I'm just trying to get a handle on what her options are.

She is going to get a public defender as she doesn't have the money to afford one of the big boys.

What are the chances that it is a false positive? What questions should she ask? Is the state required to provide the "offender" to submit a second drug test if one pops?

If anyone has any information that would help her out I'd greatly appreciate it.

Cheers.

[Burnt Toast]

Probation drug tests are a different ball game in comparison to employment-related drug tests. A person who is placed on court-ordered probation relinquishes many rights, including the right to bear arms, the right to vote, and the right to a fair drug test. There is really no rules on court-ordered drug testing.
Most probation departments, in an effort to keep costs down, will foresake confirmation tests. This can work against the probationeer in a big way. Ceratin OTC meds can result in a false-positive for THC, or any other illicit substance if a cheap screen is used. Without a confirmation test to overrule a screen positive, and if the probationeer isnt lucky enough to be represented by effective counsel, the probationeer can have his/her status revoked and sent back to jail for just simply taking the wrong medications.

Thats why it is urged that if a person is entangled within the legal system, the best thing is to abstain completely from any drug use until the entanglements are over.