The clinic I attend has really come a long way. It used to be run like the German Gestapo, and they would have never ever admitted that they could make a mistake. But about two and a half years ago, I got back on MMT after having been off for a year or so. I got clean after my first six months. I was mostly clean after three months, but, not completely. Anyway, I had about six months of clean UA's, and about two or three takehomes. All of a sudden, out of the blue- I was being given UAs every month. Random. A 'dirty' Urine came back from the lab- for Opiates. Well, I knew I wasn't dirty. NO way! I spoke to my counselor, and he said, "You have two choices. 1- Just let it go and it probably won't happen again. 2- Fight it and demand a retest". I chose the second.

I wouldn't have lost my Takehomes, but, if it happened again in six months, I would lose them immediately. So, I fought it. Of course, I knew the way things used to be run at the clinic, so I pretty much thought it would not come back in my favor. Well, after about a week and a half, I asked about it, NO reply. They said they hadn't heard from the lab yet. I waited another week. Still no reply. Finally I had counseling, and I protested that this was ridiculous... My counselor got permisson from the Director to call the lab himself. I was in his office when he called. The lab said they were very busy, and not had time to send the results, but that my urine, the recheck- WAS NEGATIVE, and the first results were incorrect.

I was of course, flabergasted to say the least. Very happy. Anyway, about another six months later I came up again as dirty. This time for propoxyphene- (darvon-darvocette) Can you believe it? I couldn't believe this! Anyway, I did the same thing- demanded a recheck- and this time I had one mistake already in my favor- so they had to take this request seriously, because a mistake had been made before. So, they put in a recheck, I paid my ten dollar fee for rechecks, and low and behold...two weeks later, they showed me the fax from the lab. It came back again in my favor, and I got my ten dollars back.

Anyway, the message I am trying to get across is that mistakes are made all the time. Some clinics, like the one I used to be on, will never admit a mistake, or if they find out about it, they won't let the patient know. That is This is not fair. The best thing I can advise is to be vigilant (even militant!) about demanding a recheck, and they if they say it came back dirty again, ask to see the results, because all labs fax the results or mail them. So they have them and if you fight hard enough, you may have the success I did. NOW, of course, if you demand rechecks constantly and they come up against you, they are not going to take you seriously. But if you know you aren't dirty, do what ever you can to fight for your rights to SEE the results of the test they are holding against you.