Poppy seeds, tea may cause false positives on roadside drug test, lawyer says

By Taran Parmar

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Early tests done by two Vancouver lawyers on a new roadside testing device reveal some major concerns about just how accurate those tests really are.

It seems a slice of poppy cake or a few drops of CBD oil could be enough to be detected by the Drager DrugTest 5000, the roadside testing device used across Canada.

Kyla Lee, a lawyer with Acumen Law, says there have been questions surrounding how accurate the testing is, and that’s why her team spent the weekend experimenting with the device.

She says volunteers used a variety of products like poppy seed cake, tea and some drops of CBD oil, and all tested positive for drug use.

“Somebody who had never used a cannabis product, that person got a positive reading for THC after ingesting half a millilitre of a CBD oil that has less than one per cent THC by volume.”

And Lee was surprised to find that a piece of poppy seed cake led to a seemingly positive reading for opioids.

“Half an hour after eating the poppy seed loaf, still tested positive on the Drager DrugTest 5000 for opiates, despite the fact it was just a product you can buy.”

She calls those results shocking, adding the inaccuracy could lead to wrongful arrests.

“The result of their provision of that sample is that they’re arrested, they’re then taken back to the detachment for further testing,” she says.

Lee says this shows more time should have been put into understanding the testing before it was rolled out across the country.

“We have all these products that haven’t been tested to determine whether or not they produce false readings, and that is going to lead to wrongful arrests,” she says.

In the coming weeks, data from the team’s testing will be compiled and published.

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