Duke Dubuque

For about three, maybe four years, I've taken a prescription drug called Protonix. It's a PPI (proton-pump inhibitor) which alleviates acid-reflux and ulcer symptoms.

My doctor prescribed it for me when Tagament /Pepcid stuff wasn't working.

Now that I'm having these probation headaches re: results of urine tests, I started researching via google and found out about the Protonix/false positive link. The drug interaction thread on this forum mentions it too.

When you give the urine, they ask you if you're diabetic and/or taking any medications; I think the first time I told them I take an acid-reflux pill. But I only take it when I need it ... like when stress makes me get the bellyburn. Gee, wonder what could make me so stressed out my stomach would start hurtin?

I went back and looked through files/old receipts etc and found about 3 years worth of receipts from Walgreens and Eckerd's/CVS for the Protonix prescription. I started taking it long before I got a DUI, was placed on probation, and had to do random urines. Years before. The pills are 40 mgs each.

The most recent paper I got with it, the last time it was refilled, says right on the "Patient Prescription Information" MAY AFFECT THE RESULT OF CERTAIN LAB TESTS (eg, false positive urine screen for tetrahydrocannabinol-THC)"

If I come up positive, could this be my ace in the hole? Could I have my lawyer argue that the medicine could be responsible?

Sure glad I saved those receipts.

Locutus

it sounds like a good idea, call your lawyer and ask him

good luck

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teufelfisch

Not at all sure about this, but it could be a way out should you choose to smoke a little after you should stop.

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Duke Dubuque

Oh there's NO WAY I'm gonna smoke until this is over...other folks, have at it!

I think this is good news. I can prove that I was taking protonix years before I was on probation. I even have the original diagnosis from the doctor about acid reflux dated July 2002. It's not like I started taking it to weasel out of a drug test!!!!

Plus, there's this news story I found from 2002:

TAZEWELL, Tenn. (AP) - Follow-up tests suggest residents at the Claiborne County Hospital and Nursing Home suffered from a bad drug test rather than bad drugs, officials said. Local and state police were notified last week when one of the nursing home's patients tested positive for marijuana in the hospital emergency room.

>>>>Health officials conducted drug tests on all 98 nursing home residents, turning up 24 positive results for marijuana. However, follow-up tests on nearly two dozen residents showed no traces of marijuana, administrators said Wednesday. "We got back our first-floor residents' confirmation tests, and all of them are negative," said Linda Vanlandingham, the facility's quality and risk manager.

>>>>All the patients took Protonix, an anti-ulcer medication that apparently set off the false alarms for marijuana in a routine drug screening test, Vanlandingham said. Officials at San Diego-based Biosite, the company that makes the widely used screening test, confirmed Protonix is one of two medications that their test can mistake for marijuana.

The irony is so ironic, ha ha: I have to go to court for violating my probation, so I'm stressed out, get a upset stomach, so instead of taking tums or zantac or whatever, I'm eating these little pills that cause a urine test to read positive for THC!!!!!!!

If this test comes back positive on Monday, I'm raising holy hell. I'm not going to jail for taking ulcer medication. I know I'm THC-free, especially by next Thursday, and I will resort to ANY MEANS NECCESSARY to BEAT these ****in BLADDER COPS!!!!!!! I'm not taking the protonix anymore to matter what, and I will give clean pee if need be!!!!

I haven't told my boss about the DUI or probation or any of this s**t. But if looks like there's gonna be trouble, I'm gonna have him there at the court appearance -- he's the editor of a chain of newspapers who would LOVE to have a story about someone getting sent to jail -- or even back on probation -- when the evidence is pretty clear that the state cannot prove any marijuana was consumed during the probation period (I had three negative tests in those six months, btw).

Calling my lawyer first thing Monday a.m.

weezer420

Stick it to the man ! Good luck and hopefully you got a great lawyer dude.

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pearl

What's the verdict ?

Does Protonix produce a false Positive ?

Pearl

winemaker

I am currently taking Ranitidine and I am THC free. Ranitidine is in the protonix category and is the generic drug used in Zantac 75. I am in Drug court in the state of NV. Last week, I received notice of a positive test for THC and I am thinking "How can that be???" I haven't smoked pot in many months and I have not even been around pot smokers. After reading all the information on this subject, I am convinced that the positve reading is a false positive! I am going to have my test re-tested with a GC/MS test. My understanding is that the test should come out negative, because it is a more definative test.

The drug court has threatened that if my GC/MS test comes out positive, I will have to spend a week in jail!!! But I am sure that it can't. I haven't smoked any pot nor have I been around it!

Here I am doing what I need to do to stay out of trouble and this comes up!!! Needless to say I am rather stressed out about this and not happy that it even came up.

I will post another reply when the outcome is final with this issue!!!

JackBauer

Actually, ranitidine is not in the same category of drugs as Protonix. They do similar things but by different mechanisms of action. Ranitidine is a H2 blocker while Protonix is a Proton Pump Inhibitor. They both block the production of acid by the stomach but at different points in the body. Apparantly, those tricky people have worked out the kinks on Protonix. I think what was happening was that it would sometime show up on the assay screen but this false positive is eliminated once GC/MS is done.

Sec

There it is. If your probation officer sends the sample in to a lab for confirmation, that was used for the screening test (after a non-negative result) then the real cause of the positive reading would be known. No need to get all rightous and indignant about it. Just have the PO send in the specimen for confirmation. end of story.

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Niplow14

So does anyone know if Protonix can cause a false positive in a Saliva test? I have been looking online and most refer to urine testing. When I look up the drug specifically, it says it can show as marijuana, but it doesn't specify the testing method.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.