The Risk Of Poppy Seeds For Athletes And Professionals

There are a few places and activities that will still drug test you. Many companies have done away with this practive, unless you are operating heavy machinery, sometimes first responders, an over the road driver, and also athletes. That's a big no no.

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So, if this is something that you need to watch, you will need to watch what you eat as well. This seems odd. But there it is. No one wants to lose their job, or be unable to participate in a sport when all they did was eat a very common food item.

MUFFINS

Those muffins at Costco are so delicious, and they come in a variety of flavors. One of the most popular flavors is the lemon poppyseed muffin. And this is the one that could possibly make you fail a drug test. I think that many of us have heard this before, but what exactly is the issue with the poppy seed muffin?

BUT WHAT IS IN IT?

According to the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM), the poppy seeds found in baked goods don’t actually contain opioids. However, the way the seeds are processed can contaminate the seeds with morphine and codeine. When consumed frequently or in large amounts, these opioids can show up on hair, urine, or saliva drug tests, causing a false positive result.

SO THEN WHAT

There was recently someone who ate a poppy seed muffin from Costco, and tested positive. She is a college athlete, and was told she wasn't going to be able to participate. So, then what? Can she argue the results being that it was from the muffin?

One person commented on the post that the people who are adminstering the test need to ask if they have eaten any poppyseed muffins. Which, obviously didn't happen in this case.

“This is why they’re SUPPOSED to ask if you’ve eaten poppy seeds before they do any drug tests anywhere (all my jobs did before I was drug tested). They set that poor girl up for failure and pure panic,” a commenter suggested. “My mom failed her drug test for work once for this reason. her manager let her stop eating poppy seed muffins for a week and she passed after that,” another said.

There hasn't been an update yet, but hopefully this works out for the better. Moral of this story, is that you should not eat any lemon poppyseed muffins if you will be drug tested. It's not worth the risk. Just wait until you aren't going to be tested. They are really good, however.