After a California mom’s post about testing positive for meth due to an inhaler went viral, the questions of whether an inhaler could cause a false positive on a meth test went viral too.
According to 9News Medical Expert Dr. John Torres, the answer is yes.
"It's something that's possible. It doesn't happen often but when it does, it gets everybody's attention," Torres said.
Torres says in this particular case it’s important to consider that there are actually two forms of methamphetamine. There’s the “D” form which is the street drug most people are familiar with, and then there’s the “L” form, which is used in pharmaceuticals for people with breathing problems or anti-depression medication.
Torres says the problem is that common urine screen tests will test for both forms, without differentiating between the two.
"And then what happens is when they send it to the lab they get the definitive test just looking for the “D” form and that says yes that is street meth versus no its the “L” form that has no meth effects,” he said.
In the case of the California mom, it was that advanced screening test that ended up clearing her of any wrongdoing. Torres says the reason that test was ordered in the first place is because it is more expensive and take a few days to get results.
Torres says it’s also common for other drugs like anti-depressants or cardiac medicines to create false positives for other hard drugs. He says keeping some sort of record of what medicines you are taking can come in handy should something like that happen.
"If you do come up positive on your test, look at everything you've taken in the past few weeks and say could any of those cause this false positive and if so make sure they understand you're taking that, that way they can dig a little deeper,” Torres said.
