-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
kidnapped seized the baby three days after its birth. Bower claims her last meal, before giving birth, was a pasta salad with Perfect Pinch Salad Supreme Seasoning, which contains poppy seeds (the fourth listed ingredient).
Bower regained custody of her child 75 days later. Bower is suing the Lawrence County Department of Children and Youth Services.
Bower’s attorney, Stanley T. Booker explained “There were only trace amounts of opiates — they couldn’t even put a range on the amount.”
In an almost identical episode, another couple, Elizabeth Mort and Alex Rodriguez, whose baby was taken after she ate a poppy-seed bagel and subsequently failed a urine test, performed by Jameson Hospital, are also suing the Lawrence County Department of Children and Youth Services, as well as Jameson Health System. In the ACLU complaint, it is claimed that:
The cut-off concentration levels used by Jameson to determine whether an initial or confirmation prenatal drug test is positive for opiates and/or morphine are so low that they are likely to produce false positive results; in fact, Jameson’s cut-off levels are far lower than those set by the federal government for federal workplace drug-testing programs.
I fail to see the reason for such a low threshold. The hospital’s policy is to consider a level of 300 nanograms/mL or above a positive result. Federal workplace drug testing has a threshold of 2000 nanograms/mL or higher.
Maybe it’s time for the hospital to rethink, assuming they thought about it in the first place, their threshold.
H/T: Reason Hit & Run, ABC News.