Myth Busting Monday - Poppy Seeds & Drug Tests

MYTH: Eating poppy seeds mimics opium use

Purveyors of this urban legend call on a popular Seinfeld episode for support. It turns out there's truth behind the comedy: tests suggest ingesting just two poppy seed bagels may produce a positive result for opiates on a drug screen.[source]

Just recently going through the job hunting process in the past year, this topic has been something that I thought about when employers have required a drug test as part of the interview process. As soon as I walked in the door for one interview the first thing I had to do was to take a drug test and I remember thinking to myself that I was glad that I didn't have that poppy seed bagel for breakfast that morning.

The popular myth and urban legend site snopes.com actually confirms that this myth is in fact True.

I find it very interesting that most of the myths that have been covered in Myth Busting Monday have been false, but this one is actually true.

Here is another interesting quote I found while searching for more information about this myth:

Yes, ingestion of poppy seed bagels or poppyseed cake can indeed cause a false positive on a urine test for opiates. Ingestion of poppy seeds can result in a positive drug test as long as two days after ingestion.[source]

With having the possibility of having two days of positive drug test you have to be really careful about eating poppy seed anything during job interview season. My advice is if you are looking and interviewing for a new job avoid all thing poppy seed, your future job ma depend on it.

What are your thoughts about this myth, let us know in the comments

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