Before she went to the hospital in Santa Rosa, California, to deliver her fifth child, Susan Horton ate a Costco salad with poppy seeds. You can probably see where this is going: The hospital drug test turned up a false positive for opiates, and social services placed her baby in protective custody at the hospital. A judge dismissed the case two weeks later, and the Hortons were finally able to bring their child home, reports the nonprofit Marshall Project. Horton's personal story, however, is not the focus of the outlet's deep dive into the issue: It's about how such stories are distressingly common thanks to superficial urine tests, easily tripped up, that are not verified before children are removed from their parents' custody.
"At least 27 states explicitly require hospitals to alert child welfare agencies after a positive screen or potential exposure," the story notes. "But not a single state requires hospitals to confirm test results before reporting them. At least 25 states do not require child welfare workers to confirm positive test results, either." The problem for affected parents is that as soon as a positive drug test surfaces, strict rules mandate what happens next, confirmation or no.
"Once that ball is rolling, it's hard to stop it," says an Alabama OB/GYN who has failed multiple times to prevent a child services intervention based on bogus test results. The problem hits low-income women disproportionately, but false positives have been reported across all socio-economic classes. "People should be concerned," says one leading researcher. "This could happen to any one of us." (Read the full story, which details the tests involved and their shortcomings.)
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