[theothereye]

Hello,

I have a question regarding urine/etg testing for drugs and alcohol. I will be serving a total of 12 days of community service for a rather embarrassing public intoxication mistake made over 6 months ago. This mistake earned me probation which includes the allowance of random drug tests until I am through paying my restitution (very soon). In all of my months on probation, I have never been asked to have a drug test, was never sentenced to AA or any treatment/counseling and was never told to abstain from alcohol by the court or my probation officer/papers. As such, I have continued to (carefully!) enjoy a drink on the weekends with my friends and family.
Here's the important part- my community service starts 4 days from now (it's Monday and Thursday is the program's beginning). I was informed that I will be taking a urine test to check for "any drugs" (as the officer said) that may be currently in my system. If I pass this test, I will be allowed to carry out my service. However, upon closely reading the Community Service agreement papers, there is a section that reads "possession and/or the use of illegal drugs or use of alcohol is prohibited WHILE PARTICIPATING in the program". What I am wondering is what the probability of the department using an ETG urine test, and if so how drinking Sunday night around 10pm-1am will effect that test. I was never warned about alcohol pertaining to this test- I was only warned that I should "stop smoking weed, if I do, months beforehand" by the officer (yes, a direct quote).

Other information that may help: I am 6'2", 165lbs, white, and have a fast metabolism.

[DrBill100]

Most of your question involves administrative procedures of the court/probation agency. In relation to those aspects... I don't have any idea.

The EtG test can detect only that you have consumed alcohol in the recent past, can't be used to determine current status and can't be used to determine amount consumed... EtG as a metabolite of EtOH stays in the system longer than EtOH. However, the detection time is directly related to the amount of alcohol consumed.