Averhealth's Drug Tests Were Wrong Up to 30% of the Time, Former Employee Testifies

[ck4829]

(Being revived with narcan and a subsequent investigation) was a wake-up call for Alexandra Hodor, a 33-year-old single mom of three. She says she got sober, partly by taking medication to block the pleasurable effects of opiates. She started attending parenting and substance abuse classes and waited tables, all while taking full-time courses toward a degree in social work. But one obstacle kept Hodor from reunifying with her children: weekly random drug tests that often came back positive for cocaine.

“I know no one will believe me, because an addict is an addict,” Hodor said. “But I wasn’t doing coke.”

The tests were administered by drug-testing giant Averhealth, a private equity–backed company that works across 34 states and runs up to 8,000 tests a day, including most of the ones used in Michigan’s child welfare cases. Hodor’s situation is a relatively common one in family and drug treatment courts as well as in probation and parole: Someone with a history of substance use swears they’re sober, but drug tests show otherwise. The vast majority of the time, they’re not believed.

But it wasn’t just former drug users challenging Averhealth’s results—so was one of its own scientists.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7zj3m/averhealth-drug-tests-false-results

[2naSalit]

1. K&R