Drug tests varying like crazy, wtf?

[todddunnigan]

I am a 48 yo male, 180 pounds and I have been a regular smoker for about 15 years. I stopped smoking on December 14, 35 days ago. I've been taking store bought drug tests and getting tested by a lab randomly and the results I'm getting are very different. I got tested by the lab on Jan 3 and got a 275, I did a store bought test 2 days later and I didn't pass but I sent it into the lab and it came back a 68. I took three more store bought tests on Jan 8, Jan 11 and Jan 21. I failed the first one and passed other 2. I didn't send the Jan 8 and Jan 11 tests into the lab so I don't know what the numbers are, but I'm going to send in the latest one and have the results in about a week. On Jan 16 I was randomly tested by the lab and the results just came back and they said I posted a 351. The results I'm getting from the random UAs and the results from the store bought tests are wildly different, and the second random UA was way up from the first one, and I haven't smoked a thing, I swear.

Any idea why the numbers are so different from the store bought tests and the lab tests? and why in the world would my numbers on the lab test go up so much when I haven't smoked a thing? I need to pass these random tests but I don't trust the results because it doesn't square with how I've been living my life. Also, how could I be passing the last 2 store bought tests, yet the numbers on my random UAs have gone up? nothing is making sense. Any help is appreciated.

todddunnigan Reviewed by todddunnigan on 01-22-2014. Drug tests varying like crazy, wtf? I am a 48 yo male, 180 pounds and I have been a regular smoker for about 15 years. I stopped smoking on December 14, 35 days ago. I've been taking store bought drug tests and getting tested by a lab randomly and the results I'm getting are very different. I got tested by the lab on Jan 3 and got a 275, I did a store bought test 2 days later and I didn't pass but I sent it into the lab and it came back a 68. I took three more store bought tests on Jan 8, Jan 11 and Jan 21. I failed the first one Rating: 5

[halo09]

Have you been exercising throughout this period?

Are these all first morning voids or samples throughout the day?

The only logical explanation I can come up with is exercising habits and hydration levels. It's very possible to be down to 25-50 ng/ml one day, then go out and exercise and all of the sudden you can spike up dramatically to failure levels. Exercising is great, but burning it out of your fat, means it has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is right into your test cup.

But even so, going from 68 all the way to 351 is very extreme. Given how long you've been clean, I'm actually very shocked to hear a 351. That's very high.

Wish I had more information for you, I'm pretty stumped by this one though.

[todddunnigan]

"Have you been exercising throughout this period?"

A few days I exercised, I don't know if I'd say heavily. I was in San Francisco Jan 8 - 12 and I walked several miles on 3 of the days, you go up and down a lot of hills so that makes it more strenuous than normal walking, and I hit the treadmill and jogged a couple miles on it Jan 13 and 15. I took a self test on Jan 5 and didn't pass but sent it into the lab and got the 68. I had the lab test me on Jan 16 and got the 351. I took a home test on Jan 8 and one on Jan 11, failed the one on the 8th and passed the one on the 11th but I didn't send those in to the lab to get a number.

"Are these all first morning voids or samples throughout the day?"

Of all the samples I've taken, only one was first thing in the morning, the one the lab tested me on January 3.

"But even so, going from 68 all the way to 351 is very extreme. Given how long you've been clean, I'm actually very shocked to hear a 351. That's very high."

That's what I thought, especially since I had passed a couple of store bought tests right around the same time period.I feel like the lab screwed up somehow but of course I have no way to prove or follow up on that. Also,I thought it was weird to get a 275 from the lab test on Jan 3, and then a 68 on the home test I took 2 days later. I took a home test yesterday evening (Jan 21) and passed, I have sent that one to the lab and should have results next week. I went to a different testing facility this morning and should have their results in a day or 2. And I swear I've been 100% clean this whole time, no second hand smoke or anything. This is seriously fucked.

[Burnt Toast]

THCA levels can fluctuate during the day and daily. Thats largely due to any fat-burning tasks, combined with the volume of fluids consumed during the course of the day as part of maintaining normal hydration. So thats no surprise that youre getting a vary of quantitative values on all of the lab tests.

It wouldve been nice (not to mention more reliable from a ng level-monitoring standpoint) if all of your lab tests were done using the first void of the day.

[todddunnigan]

"It wouldve been nice (not to mention more reliable from a ng level-monitoring standpoint) if all of your lab tests were done using the first void of the day."

I'm a musician who plays 3 - 4 nights a week and I sing so I drink a lot of water over the course of a night to keep my throat hydrated. This results in getting up 3 or 4 times a night to pee so it's kind of hard to say which void is actually the first one of the day. Is it when I went at 3:00am or the one at 5:00am? I usually don' up and around 'til 9:30 or 10, is that the first one? I went to a different lab this morning and so they got what amounts to the first one of the day essentially. I should have the results back in a day or 2, we'll see how it compares with what the drug court lab and the home test lab are saying.

[todddunnigan]

Thanks for the replies

[todddunnigan]

Update: I went to a different drug testing company here in town and I tested clean so I'm convinced I'm clean. I got results from mailing in the home test that say I'm clean and I have that backed up by a different drug testing company in town saying I'm clean, it's just the drug court tests that say I'm not clean so now I'm convinced their numbers are faulty and my numbers haven't actually been fluctuating like they say. Unfortunately it's their numbers that count so there's not much recourse I have.

[todddunnigan]

Interesting article in Time about exercise and marijuana. One Toke, Many Hits: Exercise Could Trigger Additional High for Marijuana Users | TIME.com

[halo09]

Interesting article in Time about exercise and marijuana. One Toke, Many Hits: Exercise Could Trigger Additional High for Marijuana Users | TIME.com

Interesting article, good post.

When you went to the other test company in town, what were your numbers? It might be worth disputing with the original test, was it a split sample? In your case, I would be asking for a retest of your sample. Something seems way off here. It very well may be worth disputing.

[todddunnigan]

The other test company in town didn't give me an exact number, but they did say that they consider a 20 ng/ml or lower a pass, so apparently it was below 20. The drug court tested me the day after I went to the place that gave a negative and the drug court tested me negative as well. So if I'm to believe the drug court tests, they're saying I gained 76 points in one week then dropped over 320 points the next week. That doesn't seem too likely does it? The independent test show a steady drop of about 30 - 40 points a week,which to me sounds normal. I asked the lady at the drug court if I could could submit my documentation to the judge and she said "You can if you want........." and was silent, and I said "But the judge probably won't take them into consideration will she?" "Probably not". Basically even with hard proof you can't win in court.