It sounds crazy but its one of those things that you never really know is true.  It turns out that the answer is “it depends”.  Using a crude drug test, MythBusters proved that eating a poppy seed bagel or just poppy seeds in general can cause you to come up positive.  See the mini-clip here.  Not only did the test come up positive, but it came up so fast.  Of course, MythBusters is more entertainment than science so looking at a 1998 study published in the Forensic Science International journal is better.  The study found that eating two poppy-seed rolls with an average of about .76 grams of seeds each caused positive test results for up to six hours in one person, ranging from 47.9 ng/ml to 832 ng/ml, depending on a variety of factors.  The same study found that eating a poppy-seed cake (which contained an average of 4.69 grams of seeds) caused all four people to screen positive for up to 24 hours—four times as long as the rolls—with one person’s results ranging between 83.8 ng/ml and 302.1 ng/ml.

Now I said it depends because most tests have cut off levels to account for this problem.  Eating a bagel will not give you the same level as doing heroin.  Unfortunately, DYFS of course may use tests that have no cut off levels!  A friend of mine just failed a drug test because he ate a poppy seed bagel because there was no cut off level.  As a result, eh was looking a having his parenting time suspended.  The judge had issued a tentative decision doing just that.  However, we were able to prove to the court that this positive drug test was bogus and as a result, his parenting time was not suspended.  Don’t let a DYFS drug test ruin your life.  Let our team of tough, smart DYFS Defense Attorneys help you.