A mom says an ‘everything bagel’ caused her to fail a drug test. The hospital reported her to child protective services anyway.
Source: CBS News
A new mother from Alabama is warning pregnant patients after she says eating an “everything bagel” for breakfast before giving birth to her second child upended her family last spring.
It all stemmed from the unexpected results of one urine drug test — a routine test given to thousands of maternity patients across the country. It illustrates the findings of a joint investigation between “CBS Sunday Morning” and The Marshall Project that found the percentage of false positive results from urine drug tests to be as high as 50%.
“An out-of-body experience”
“It was almost like an out-of-body experience. I mean, I truly could not believe that it was happening,” Katie, of Huntsville, who asked to only be referred to by her first name, told “CBS Sunday Morning.” She was shocked to learn she tested positive for opiates.
The bagel Katie ate was seasoned with poppy seeds, which come from the same plant cultivated for the production of opiates like morphine and codeine and can trigger a false positive test result for opiates. The fact that poppy seeds can cause a false positive test result is well documented. In fact, the U.S. Department of Defense even issued a warning in 2023 to service members that “consumption of poppy seed products could result in a codeine positive urinalysis result.”
A 2001 Supreme Court ruling determined that maternity patients cannot be tested for illegal drugs without their informed consent or a valid warrant if the test’s sole purpose is to obtain evidence of criminal conduct for law enforcement purposes. But many hospitals routinely test patients, arguing the tests have a medical purpose. Katie agreed to what she believed to be a routine drug screening, simply thinking she had nothing to worry about.
“I signed and said, ‘Yes, that’s fine,'” Katie, who took the drug test before giving birth, explained. “I didn’t take any over-the-counter medicine. I didn’t take Tylenol.”