Hello,

I go to a pain clinic and they will randomly drug test participants. I am fortunate, however, in that I do not have to take pain medication every day or even every week, so even though I'm not supposed to, I do drink occasionally because I know I am not and will not be taking medication. I drank about 4 vodka and grapefruits Saturday night, ending at 12:00 a.m. I am 5'2" about 110 pounds. Will I pass an EtG test with 100 cutoff after 72 hours of last drink?

Four drinks at 72 hours should be EtG clear. In the future you might consider another mixer. Grapefruit juice interferes with the metabolism of alcohol by way of inhibiting the CYP2E1 enzyme and probably creates more EtG as a result.

EtG testing isn't usually part of standard drug screening. Are you certain you are tested for alcohol?

I found out we were tested for alcohol because I didn't realize I wasn't allowed to drink... I thought it meant if I was taking medication obviously. When I was tested the clinic had just started testing for alcohol and we all had to sign new contracts. At the time the doctor laughed and said about 15% of people tested positive for alcohol with huge amounts in their system ( not me) so I fiugured they did a regular urine test because I had consumed alcohol the night before, but I also had no medication in my system which I thought was okay.

Anyway, they changed to Millennium Labs which does EtG testing, and I wondered if EtG is an initial test, or is it expensive and only used on certain populations? How does testing in these clinics work? Just to clarify, if I stopped on Sunday at 12:00 a.m. and test on Wednesday the EtG will not be detectable?

The fact that the doctor mentioned amount of alcohol would indicate that the test is normal urine for ethanol. EtG cannot quantify amount consumed or when.

It would be my suspicion that it is not EtG given the circumstances. While the initial screen for EtG is not particularly expensive it is a separate test and would complicate the testing process due to being instrument based.

Either way, EtG would not be detectable at the time span noted.