Medical - cannabis and MH issues

Convicted Driver Insurance

Karty

Member
Hey everyone :) a bit of advice needed.

So I have my medical tomorrow (short notice I know, only just found this forum) which includes a blood and urine test. This is following a 6 month revocation that started September 2017 following a report from my previous GP that stated an issue with cannabis. The delay in reapplying was due to my mental health. I haven’t smoked for nearly 6 months and I took a 20ngl dip test on Sunday which I passed (and passed every day since) albeit with a faint line (although the rest information says the faintness is irrelevant) - however I’m starting to panic that I’m not going to pass! Does anyone know what would happen in the event I fail the urine test? I don’t have any issues with alcohol.

My consultant psychiatrist has already confirmed my fitness to drive (I’ve also not had any issues with my mental health since 2018) what more information would they need from my GP? Should I contact my GP ahead of time to make them aware that the DVLA will be writing to them? I have also moved to a new GP in the past year due to moving house.

Sorry if I’m rambling, I guess I’m just extremely nervous! Any help or advice would be appreciated!
 
Hey everyone :) a bit of advice needed.

So I have my medical tomorrow (short notice I know, only just found this forum) which includes a blood and urine test. This is following a 6 month revocation that started September 2017 following a report from my previous GP that stated an issue with cannabis. The delay in reapplying was due to my mental health. I haven’t smoked for nearly 6 months and I took a 20ngl dip test on Sunday which I passed (and passed every day since) albeit with a faint line (although the rest information says the faintness is irrelevant) - however I’m starting to panic that I’m not going to pass! Does anyone know what would happen in the event I fail the urine test? I don’t have any issues with alcohol.

My consultant psychiatrist has already confirmed my fitness to drive (I’ve also not had any issues with my mental health since 2018) what more information would they need from my GP? Should I contact my GP ahead of time to make them aware that the DVLA will be writing to them? I have also moved to a new GP in the past year due to moving house.

Sorry if I’m rambling, I guess I’m just extremely nervous! Any help or advice would be appreciated!
Hi buddy,if you have not smoked within the last six months you will pass a urine test without a doubt.the only way you will fail a cannabiss drug test after six months is a hair sample if it's long enough.
 
Hi buddy,if you have not smoked within the last six months you will pass a urine test without a doubt.the only way you will fail a cannabiss drug test after six months is a hair sample if it's long enough.
I thought that too but I was still testing positive up until like a week ago (last Wednesday). I was a really heavy user and overweight BMI so this might be the reason. I’m just worried because I’ve only just started testing negative and worried I might not pass with DVLA cut off levels
 
hi karty

hope your doing well? was just wondering how you got on with your medical? im due mines next week on the 5th of march? i was a heavy user up until december last year and come the 5th of march ill be a total of 81 days clean however even as of today im failing a thc strip which is making me nervous come next week. what is the proceducure does anyone know would be very grateful if i somewhat had an idea of what to expect? some had advised to by a detox drink few hours before the test but wouldthis even any good if it was being checked at a toxicology lab

thank you
 
hi karty

hope your doing well? was just wondering how you got on with your medical? im due mines next week on the 5th of march? i was a heavy user up until december last year and come the 5th of march ill be a total of 81 days clean however even as of today im failing a thc strip which is making me nervous come next week. what is the proceducure does anyone know would be very grateful if i somewhat had an idea of what to expect? some had advised to by a detox drink few hours before the test but wouldthis even any good if it was being checked at a toxicology lab

thank you

There's no way to bluff the tests really, you will provide a positive test until the THC is fully gone out of your system. It took 5 months at one point for me and another user recently reported 6 months for him. I was quite overweight at the time and THC binds to fat which explained the long time until a negative test for me. However the user who reported 6 months was under weight, which is a bit of a head scratcher. The lab test is more sensitive than a home dip stick, most home kits test to 25ng/20ng depending on the kit purchased while the lab used by the DVLA tests to 15ng. Coming from an addiction background I know a lot of people who have used expensive detox drinks to try and bluff a test but they either didn't work, or created a diluted sample which just led to a retest but more times it just did nothing.

As for the procedure for a drug test, you will complete a questionnaire with the doctor and you will then be accompanied to the bathroom with the doctor where they will observe you producing the sample, the sample is then sealed and sent off to the lab for testing. The results come back and the doctor writes these into the paperwork and sends that to the DVLA for a decision to be made.
 
hi karty

hope your doing well? was just wondering how you got on with your medical? im due mines next week on the 5th of march? i was a heavy user up until december last year and come the 5th of march ill be a total of 81 days clean however even as of today im failing a thc strip which is making me nervous come next week. what is the proceducure does anyone know would be very grateful if i somewhat had an idea of what to expect? some had advised to by a detox drink few hours before the test but wouldthis even any good if it was being checked at a toxicology lab

thank you
Hey Jaymzee :)

So from my personal experience, the medical was quick and relatively painless. I attended and was desperate for the toilet so the doctor gave me the sample pot to produce a sample. I don’t know whether it was just a particularly complacent doctor in my case, but I was allowed to the toilet on my own which was down the hallway from the room the doctor was in and I was able to shut the door and go as needed. I gave the doctor the sample and we ran through some questions which are the same as the questionnaire you filled out and sent to the DVLA. I didn’t have a blood test which I assumed was because I’ve never had any issues with alcohol, but I had a call on Wednesday to say that it was an error and I need to come back for a blood test (annoying) and that’s on Monday. She didn’t examine me physically or anything. The whole process took about 15 minutes and I’m assuming with a blood test that would have added an extra 10 minutes at a push.

I’m still waiting for my urine test results and I’m in this constant state of panic haha. For me it’s a 50/50 chance of whether I’m going to pass if I’m honest, however the doctor said my sample looked diluted and did mention they may ask for another sample.

Yeah it can take along time to leave your system, is there any way you can push back your test? If so I would say do that! A detox drink definitely wouldn’t work, I wasted £40 buying one and it didn’t even help me pass a home test!

Hope this helps :)
 
Hey Jaymzee :)

So from my personal experience, the medical was quick and relatively painless. I attended and was desperate for the toilet so the doctor gave me the sample pot to produce a sample. I don’t know whether it was just a particularly complacent doctor in my case, but I was allowed to the toilet on my own which was down the hallway from the room the doctor was in and I was able to shut the door and go as needed. I gave the doctor the sample and we ran through some questions which are the same as the questionnaire you filled out and sent to the DVLA. I didn’t have a blood test which I assumed was because I’ve never had any issues with alcohol, but I had a call on Wednesday to say that it was an error and I need to come back for a blood test (annoying) and that’s on Monday. She didn’t examine me physically or anything. The whole process took about 15 minutes and I’m assuming with a blood test that would have added an extra 10 minutes at a push.

I’m still waiting for my urine test results and I’m in this constant state of panic haha. For me it’s a 50/50 chance of whether I’m going to pass if I’m honest, however the doctor said my sample looked diluted and did mention they may ask for another sample.

Yeah it can take along time to leave your system, is there any way you can push back your test? If so I would say do that! A detox drink definitely wouldn’t work, I wasted £40 buying one and it didn’t even help me pass a home test!

Hope this helps :)

hi again karty

sorry for the late reply and thank you for getting back in touch again it’s honestly greatly appreciated.

I pretty much had similar experience other than not going to the bathroom alone had the doctor ask to check my pockets and stood a couple feet away while I filled a cup.

I also never had a blood test taken (didn’t receive a call either to return and take one) and also went through questions I gave honest answers too it went a lot quicker than expected.

Mee too I’m in a constant state of panic even tho I haven’t drank or smoked weed for months now plus I was passed 3x 20ng test strips haven’t had any medical issues (suspected seizure was my original cause for me handing in my license last April after falling and banging my head at bottom of stairs)

I am naturally a worrier but see no reason why I should fail yet still panic as my license is my job in the trade industry.

I asked my partner who doesn’t smoke at all to take a test out of curiosity and even on the 20ng thc dipstick her pass line came out very thin too which does t give me confidence in the home test kits tbh

hope your well and staying safe aswell as got your license back. My test was three weeks ago today and I still have t heard anything back from the dvla but in all fairness the doctor who took the medical says it could take 3-4 weeks.

does anyone know if there’s a direct contact number for dvla medial only one I’ve been able to find is 0300 790 6806 but keeps saying “lines are busy please try again later”

hope this reaches you

kind regards
 
There's no way to bluff the tests really, you will provide a positive test until the THC is fully gone out of your system. It took 5 months at one point for me and another user recently reported 6 months for him. I was quite overweight at the time and THC binds to fat which explained the long time until a negative test for me. However the user who reported 6 months was under weight, which is a bit of a head scratcher. The lab test is more sensitive than a home dip stick, most home kits test to 25ng/20ng depending on the kit purchased while the lab used by the DVLA tests to 15ng. Coming from an addiction background I know a lot of people who have used expensive detox drinks to try and bluff a test but they either didn't work, or created a diluted sample which just led to a retest but more times it just did nothing.

As for the procedure for a drug test, you will complete a questionnaire with the doctor and you will then be accompanied to the bathroom with the doctor where they will observe you producing the sample, the sample is then sealed and sent off to the lab for testing. The results come back and the doctor writes these into the paperwork and sends that to the DVLA for a decision to be made.
Hi, I read this answer with real interest.
I wonder if you would be good enough to tell me / us how you actually found out the 15ng cut off level that the DVLA lab uses??
The lab they use is an NHS hospital in Birmingham and definently not a private lab. DVLA do not publicly provide this cut off level in any literature and staff either can't or won't say. I cannot find it anywhere online. DVLA medical department say there is a complete zero tolerance level when it comes to their medicals.
My DVLA urine / medical test centre nurse also told me this.
With the greatest respect I am not doubting you but I cannot find this information anywhere and thought that a person would need to apply for an FOI request for this and they still might not provide it. Is this what you did? Have you read it or just heard it somewhere? Private labs in the UK can only do a 15ng lab test but given this is sent to an NHS lab with and with a DVLA official zero tolerance approach I just don't understand how you know this to be true and not an opinion please. Thank you very much for your help in this matter and I very much appreciate it. Again I am not doubting you. Please understand this. Peace.
 
NileR,
I will let Grice96 say about the source of the 15ng cut off, but point out that zero tolerance does NOT mean a reading of 0ng!
Drink driving is my expertise, and when the Railway and Transport Safety Act was introduced, the rail and aircraft industry wanted to have a zero tolerance policy towards alcohol at work.
They did not introduce a policy of 1ug alcohol / 100ml breath, they opted for a reading of 9ug.... for the simple reason that below that the breath test devices could not be guaranteed accurate. In practice that means that in effect you could have one unit of alcohol in your body and pass a zero tolerance breath test. (For a man, a bit less for a woman)
This was because it also allowed for one one to have used cough mixture or similar, which often obtain small amounts of alcohol, or even sherry trifle!
I would imagine that there has to be a similar allowance in the test for cannabis to allow for someone getting a reading from passive smoking near someone having a joint, hence zero tolerance carrying a figure of 15ng, rather than 0ng.
 
NileR,
I will let Grice96 say about the source of the 15ng cut off, but point out that zero tolerance does NOT mean a reading of 0ng!
Drink driving is my expertise, and when the Railway and Transport Safety Act was introduced, the rail and aircraft industry wanted to have a zero tolerance policy towards alcohol at work.
They did not introduce a policy of 1ug alcohol / 100ml breath, they opted for a reading of 9ug.... for the simple reason that below that the breath test devices could not be guaranteed accurate. In practice that means that in effect you could have one unit of alcohol in your body and pass a zero tolerance breath test. (For a man, a bit less for a woman)
This was because it also allowed for one one to have used cough mixture or similar, which often obtain small amounts of alcohol, or even sherry trifle!
I would imagine that there has to be a similar allowance in the test for cannabis to allow for someone getting a reading from passive smoking near someone having a joint, hence zero tolerance carrying a figure of 15ng, rather than 0ng.

I was informed of the 15ng cut off by my GP when first being tested for drugs, then in rehab we were also told that the cut off for the NHS lab test is 15ng.

This is from personal experience, I have passed a 20ng test in the morning and failed an NHS test in the afternoon. So the NHS test has to be more sensitive than 20ng. The issue you run into with publishing health service drug test cuts offs is opening the system up to abuse. The NHS tests are relied on by the courts, the police and the health service as an indication of use. Publishing cut offs opens that system to manipulation, much how the DVLA won't give a definitive answer on how to prove abstenance.
 
NileR,
I will let Grice96 say about the source of the 15ng cut off, but point out that zero tolerance does NOT mean a reading of 0ng!
Drink driving is my expertise, and when the Railway and Transport Safety Act was introduced, the rail and aircraft industry wanted to have a zero tolerance policy towards alcohol at work.
They did not introduce a policy of 1ug alcohol / 100ml breath, they opted for a reading of 9ug.... for the simple reason that below that the breath test devices could not be guaranteed accurate. In practice that means that in effect you could have one unit of alcohol in your body and pass a zero tolerance breath test. (For a man, a bit less for a woman)
This was because it also allowed for one one to have used cough mixture or similar, which often obtain small amounts of alcohol, or even sherry trifle!
I would imagine that there has to be a similar allowance in the test for cannabis to allow for someone getting a reading from passive smoking near someone having a joint, hence zero tolerance carrying a figure of 15ng, rather than 0ng.
Hi, thanks for for taking the time to respond. I was aware of a 15ng cut off for Railway workers and that there may be a possibility of a tolerance level for passive exposure. However I was uncertain whether passive exposure could or would be taken into account given that studies have shown that this is very unlikely and would be almost nil in a matter of hours therefore any small amount would be still considered as a failure. Additionally, I know that GCMS urine tests can test at least to 1ng and hair analysis to 0.02 and 0.003 or something so simply confused as to how the OP knew the test level parameters. Again, thank you very much for taking the time to reply.
 
I was informed of the 15ng cut off by my GP when first being tested for drugs, then in rehab we were also told that the cut off for the NHS lab test is 15ng.

This is from personal experience, I have passed a 20ng test in the morning and failed an NHS test in the afternoon. So the NHS test has to be more sensitive than 20ng. The issue you run into with publishing health service drug test cuts offs is opening the system up to abuse. The NHS tests are relied on by the courts, the police and the health service as an indication of use. Publishing cut offs opens that system to manipulation, much how the DVLA won't give a definitive answer on how to prove abstenance.
Hi, thanks for taking the time to respond to me, I appreciate your help in this.
Interesting this came from your GP and NHS themselves, that's good to know. Do you mind if I ask how long ago this was please? I understand regarding DVLA unable to give a definitive answer on prove abstinence. It's strange and contradictory. They state that you need to prove this but when I called and asked they said that they did not know how this could be done, only suggesting as a possibility that you could contact your GP and ask him to call their DVLA doctor. I did this and he said he couldn't prove it as he wasn't with me 24/7 and he talked to the DVLA doctor who said he would accept another urine test and I gave this to DVLA. I also got a letter from Consultant Psychiatrist who easily wrote me a letter of support saying she believed I was clean. DVLA were a nightmare. Their doctor failed / forgot to put the record of conversation on my file so my application was rejected and returned and I had to go through the whole process again from complete start to finish. The process took 364 days. Nightmare.
Anyway sorry about the rant.
Thanks again for taking the time to respond and I very much appreciate it.
 
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