As a pilot do you eat em?

Do you know of any pilot/crew who failed the drug test from eating poppy seeds?

Cheers!

I do eat them, as it is my favorite bagel. Never have, or heard of anyone failing a drug test because of them

In the late 90's a Captain told me he got a phone call from the doctor after taking a drug test. He asked him if he had eaten poppy seeds and it ended there. I was under the impression that they always used the gas spectrometer for drug tests, but his story leads me to believe that they use cheaper methods and follow up on positives.

When you need serious answers, skip forums and go to Mythbusters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxr6bQikRk0

Your assumption is correct. The initial test they use is very cheap, so it is also fairly inaccurate. That is a big reason to make sure that you get your initials on both bottles because your career may rely on the second one if you get a false positive or if there was an error in the lab. A little experience in lab testing combined with what I know about human error in a highly controlled environment gives me little faith in lab results.

Another reason that a split sample should be used.

There was a time when a number of items of common dietary intake could produce false positives. Current screening has eliminated most of that.

To test above the 2000ng/ml cutoff, you'd have to consume a lot of ****ing poppy seeds...

I eat them with reckless abandon.

One of our pilots actually did have this happen awhile back... Apparently the Costco and Starbucks poppyseed muffins use seeds that are more likely to trigger a false positive than most. It was quickly cleared up for him, but still probably a bit nerve wracking.

The military recently started using more sensitive tests for opiates (ie poppies) and it's now entirely possible to pop positive for costco bagels. Maybe you can explain it away, but I personally would prefer not to open that can of worms so I don't eat a lot of poppyseeds.

Not sure if DOT testing is similar to DoD testing.