Question
Can HIV meds make me fail a recreational drug screening test?
20 September 2011. Related: All topics, Drug interactions.
I would like to know what HIV meds can produce a false positive on a drug screen.
Answer
In general, most HIV drug should have no impact on drug tests.
Efavirenz may be an exception, because when it was first approved there were reports that it might cause testing for marijuana to be false positive.
I thought that the tests used for recreational drugs had become more refined since then, but theoretically, this might still be a worry. A false positive test for marijuana can be checked using a more specific test.
The SPC leaflet (Specific Product Characteristics) for efavirenz documents this as a problem with only one make of test: “False positive test results have only been observed with the CEDIA DAU Multi-Level THC assay, which is used for screening, and have not been observed with other cannabinoid assays tested including tests used for confirmation of positive results.”
However, a more recent study reported that people taking efavirenz had a high rate of false-positive tests for benzodiazepines (including commonly used drugs like diazepam (Valium) and lorazepam (Ativan). The same study found no false positive results for marijuana.
Hi Johnson, PEP won’t cause a problem with drug testing unless it contains efavirez. Even then this is still very unlikely with modern drug tests.
I bought the drug test, all they have 2 dark lines but on Marijuana is 1 dark line and the other line is light, but I’m not smoking at all is just am using PEP medication and I’m still on 5 days now so am scared because on Monday am going to pre employment drug test.
Hi Johnson, there is a small chance this might happen – but only if your PEP contains a drug called efavirenz. There is more info on PEP here:
https://i-base.info/qa/factsheets/pep-faq
Can pep medication make you fail for drug urine test
Hi Luvuyo, as mentioned in this post it is possible. As Odimune contains efavirenz it is possible to cause a false positive for marijuana. However tests used should be more refined and this should be an outdated problem.
If a test is positive, a urine test is only screening and a more specific test would be used. In this case the result would be negative.