A nurse recently told me that using CBD will cause you to fail a drug test. True or rumor? Drug testing is mandatory for federal employees, and although it isn’t required in the private sector, more employers are implementing some kind of drug screening. Of course you should be concerned about ingesting any of the many forms of CBD if they could cause you problems at your place of employment. We went looking for answers and here is what our research found.
What Drug Screens Are Looking For
DISA, a provider of workplace safety says that “Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the chemical compound responsible for marijuana’s psychoactivity and euphoria and is usually screened for in a typical urinalysis drug test. When drug testing is mandated, employers follow guidelines, such as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which has a set cutoff level for a positive test at > 50 ng/mL. When a test is positive, it then gets screened again with a confirmatory GC/MS or LC/MS test, which have cutoff levels of 15 ng/mL and is specific only to the THC metabolite.”
Drug tests do not test for CBD. CBD properly produced from legal hemp cannot produce a false positive for THC use. CBD oil products sourced from marijuana are likely to contain some amount of THC and likely to make you fail a drug test. Because CBD oils are not standardized, if you are required to undergo drug screenings by your employer, you need to be fully aware of the contents of your CBD oil. Don’t use CBD oil made from marijuana. Don’t use any CBD product that does not specify that the product is completely THC-free, meaning all THC has been removed.
The Good News – FDA Approval
The Food and Drug Administration recently approved the the new drug, Epidiolex, a formulation of cannabidiol medicine for treating two serious types of childhood epilepsy..
FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb also issued an immediate statement saying this wasn’t an approval of marijuana, in general — and said anyone wanting to use cannabis-based products to treat disease must prove they are safe and that they work. “This is an important medical advance,” he said. “But it’s also important to note that this is not an approval of marijuana or all of its components. This is the approval of one specific CBD medication for a specific use.”
The Food and Drug Administration has published several letters warning consumers of the inaccurate content of various CBD oil products and states that “many were found to not contain the levels of CBD they claimed to contain.” Now that the FDA has made an official ruling on its first-ever CBD drug, approval for other CBD products should be coming. Once regulated, CBD oil will be a safer solution with reliable doses for users who have concerns about drug testing.
Ask the Doc
If you have any concerns about testing positive for THC when using CBD-containing hemp oil, seek advice from your health care professional. In general, a consumer who uses a high-quality, scientifically vetted hemp-based product at the standard serving size is highly unlikely to test positive for THC and/or THC-COOH. But it is important to be aware that extremely high doses may result in a positive urine screen (that would be subsequently shown to be false). Be smart and be informed – find out the specific regulations posed by your employer and adjust your consumption of cannabinoid products accordingly.