Drug Test False Positive – Plymouth Lawyer
Accused of testing positive for drugs while on bond? Are you sure it was a false positive but no one believes you? There may be a defense to a false positive drug test.
Contact criminal defense lawyer, Aaron J. Boria today to fight for you (734) 453-7806.
Criminal Defense Lawyer and False Positives
My office is always handling some type of drug offense from Manufacture and Delivery of Heroin to being in possession of a small amount of ecstasy for personal use.
Manufacture and delivery of drugs or even simple possession is a very serious offense in the eyes of the court. If a person is found guilty of the lowest manufacture and delivery of heroin case involving less than 50 grams, the offense is a felony punishable by a prison sentence of up to 20 years, a fine of up to $25,000.00, or both. Even simple possession of MDMA or ecstasy is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Drug Testing While on Bond
Bond is an amount of money that a person must give to the court in order to be released from jail. Bond is essentially a promise to return to court in secured by money. If you don’t abide by the terms of the bond you forfeit your money and wait in jail while the case progresses. If you abide my the terms of bond you either get your bond money back or it goes towards your fines when you case ends.
In some cases the amount of bond given to the court represents a percentage of the total bond. For example, a $20,000.00, ten percent bond, would mean the person must pay ten percent of the bond or $2,000.00 but if they violate by using illegal drugs or failing to show up to court they owe the court $20,000 and will be held in jail pending further proceedings.
In addition to promising to return to court to defend the allegations against you, bond will often come with conditions. In just about any allegation of a drug crime, the court will require that you test for drugs while on bond. A positive drug test will usually lead to bond revocation and going to jail.
False Marijuana Positive Drug Test
In one case we had recently, our client was a heavy marijuana user and as part of their bond they were ordered not to use any drugs including marijuana. It had been over a month since our client used marijuana, so it came as a shock to them when they were ordered to show cause as to why they should not be punished for violating bond by testing positive. The allegation was that he tested positive for marijuana almost a month after they stopped using it. The evidence of the positive test was an upward spike of a marijuana metabolite.
Understanding Marijuana and Testing
The primary psychoactive ingredient of marijuana is THC, which is absorbed in red blood cells and plasma. THC penetrates into vascularized tissue and accumulates in body fat where it can be stored long term.
Several factors can influence the concentrations and the duration of detectability of THC metabolites. These factors include frequency of usage, when the sample was collected, body fat content, urine dilution, sensitivity of testing, and cutoff concentrations.
This may come of a shock to you, but according to a governmental study it is highly likely that heavy marijuana users can be expected to have detection rates for approximately 28 days after the first negative test. Again, heavy marijuana users that stop consuming marijuana and text clean should be expected to have THCCOOH, inactive THC, show up in drug tests up to a month later. This is because residual THCCOOH can excrete and show up on tests even after the person previously tested positive.
Criminal Defense Lawyer and False Positives Results
Luckily for our client we were able to educate the court as to how THC testing can result in false-positives over a month after the last use. As a result, our client’s bond was not revoked and he was able to go home to his family.
If you have been charged with a crime, or are facing a bond violation contact Michigan criminal defense lawyer, Aaron J. Boria today (734) 453-7806
False Opiate Positive Drug Test
Have you been accused of testing positive for cocaine while on bond and you know the test is wrong? Have you been accused of testing positive for cocaine even though you have never used it? It either of these situations sound like you then you need to call criminal defense lawyer, Aaron J. Boria (734) 453-7806.
State of Michigan Drug Testing and Opiates
Drug testing is reported as positive or negative. The concentration of a drug is reported in a persons system and if the amount of that concentration exceeds a predetermined value the laboratory will report the test as positive.
In an article published by the U.S. Department of Justice the following was concluded:
When setting cutoff concentration levels it is important that the cutoff is set high enough that small traces of a drug metabolite will not trigger false positives. This is especially true in opiate levels where a positive reading is given in tests with levels below 2,000 ng/ml. An opiate test set below 2,000 ng/ml reporting a positive could be the result of eating poppy seeds and not indicative of heroin or some other opiate use.
For the reasons stated above federal courts have already increased the cutoff for opiates to 2,000 ng/ml or higher, while the State of Michigan is still lagging behind at around 500ng/ml for their cutoff.
False Opiate Positive Drug Test Defense
In two recent cases the issue of a false positive for opiates came up while our clients were testing on bond.
In one case we presented the evidence from the U.S. Department of justice along with a polygraph and a receipt for a poppyseed bagel to prove our client had not been using heroin or hydrocodone or some other opiate and the bond violation was dismissed.
In another case we used a hair test and an additional drug screen to show that there was no opiate in our client’s system and the bond violation was dismissed.
If you have been charged with a crime, or are facing a bond violation contact Michigan criminal defense lawyer, Aaron J. Boria today (734) 453-7806
